Public housing used to mean fortress-like blocks and soulless rows of cheaply built townhouses. But now there's a new model: privately developed homes and apartments that are well-designed, well-built and attractive enough to win over wary neighbors. A growing number of architects, from established stars to ambitious up-and-comers, are looking to such projects as an opportunity to do innovative work.

A single-room-occupancy building that opened in Chicago in March was designed by Helmut Jahn, internationally known for his glass-sheathed skyscrapers; the 96-unit SRO, where most residents pay less than $160 a month in rent, resembles a train, with its long, narrow shape, curved roof and glass-and-steel exterior. In Brooklyn's East New York neighborhood, a group of young architects teamed up to build nine two-family homes for families with modest incomes. Completed in March, the homes feature unconventional materials such as corrugated aluminum and unpainted cedar siding. And in Santa Monica, Calif., a recently completed 41-unit apartment building, designed by Pugh + Scarpa Architects, incorporates green design elements. It is partially clad in blocks made of recycled crushed aluminum cans and has a sail-shaped metal screen that helps shield the building from the sun.

read the whole wall street journal article here

Chicago - 96-unit single-room occupancy building for very-low- income residents in the Near North neighborhood, completed in 2007.

Glenmore Gardens -Brooklyn, N.Y. Nine two-family homes, completed in 2007

Der serbische Schriftsteller Bora Cosic lebt seit 15 Jahren im Exil. Aus Protest gegen die Kriegspolitik des damaligen Machthabers Slobodan Miloševic hatte er Belgrad 1992 verlassen. In Serbien nahm damals kaum jemand von seinem Weggang Kenntnis, obwohl Bora Cosic als einer der wichtigsten serbischen Schriftsteller gilt.

Von Berlin aus beobachtet der heute 75-Jährige mit Verwunderung, wie die ehemaligen jugoslawischen Republiken in Richtung EU drängen.

von Walter Müller, Radio DRS, 26.12.2007

Today we passed the 25. May Sports-center again and I was very happy to see that they were renewing the windows. For years It looked like they'd let this building fall into disrepair. Maybe there is hope for this beautiful building.
This part of the building is empty since a long time. In another part is a public swimming pool. Two years ago I went for a swim there. It's an amazing place.

A typically serbian thing are these Houseboats along the river Danube and Sava. Some of them are Holiday houses, restaurants and clubs.

You may have realized by now that I love to walk through cities by night. Belgrade is probably my favorite "night walks" city. First it is darker than any city I know so far, except Katmandu maybe, but I have not been there for a very long time.
Second the light seems to be very yellowish here. I don't know if this is because of the dirt and pollution in the air or if they use different bulbs.
When I came here for the first time in 1999 this struck me immediately. Lit shops and house entrances get to look so mysterious in this generally much darker city. I like the deserted shops and the empty hallways. Some times you to get to see through a not properly closed curtain into an apartment and you get a glimpse of a different live, sometimes you pass a restaurant where the last quests don't feel like going home even though the waiters started to close the restaurant.
I was very luck yesterday because it started snowing, which makes it even more fun because people don't go out and you are pretty much alone out there.
Unfortunately I am a bit of a wuss and get scared often if the streets get to narrow and to dark. It doesn't help that there is always someone approaching me . Yesterday I took the iPod with me, which was a pretty good idea, it's a bit like diving in the city, - you don't hear all the party people screaming and chatting, just you, the music and the city.