Housing types for highly qualified migrants: overview of apartment options

In 1916 company Norton began to tackle the problem of housing for unskilled workers. They built the housing track “Nortonville” as a way of attracting workers. The company constucted it without the services of an architect and it had different types of planning. Single houses,double houses, tenements and boarding houses for man wich did not have amenities.

Norton hoped to avoid this problem at Worcester prepered a new housing plan to accommodate three grades of employees; providing houses in the 5,000-7,000 dollar renge to sell to foremen and office employees; houses at the 1915 Indian Hill prices (from 2,800 to 3,500 dollars) for skilled laborers, and rental housing for unskilled laborers, primarily “Italian and Polanders,” with salaries of 20 dollars per week. Since the company insisted that employees should spend no more than 25 percent of their earnings for housing, this group could not afford to purchase houses.[1]

Moreover, in 1880 industrialist George Pullman set out to build a capitalist utopia. The town of Pullman was established just outside of Chicago as a model community - a place that was supposed to produce both happy workers and a nice return for Pullman's investors. The site of Pullman was ten miles south of the Chicago border at the time - not that far away, but far enough from the city to feel like its own community. At its peak the town would house about 12,000 people. [2]. Looking back at the history the importance of housing for migrants can be observed.

The typological aspect

While the demand for specialists is high the rent in big cities around the world steadely growing. On the graph below can be seen the amount of monthly rental and annual income needed for a single person and family.

I Deluding average per-square-metre (psm) prices for rental prope rties (ЈJ

Fig 1. Top ten costliest cities for workers [3]

Based on that companies start to offer different types of housing options. Red Ventures, the internet marketing firm based in Indian Land, S.C., is developing 260 upscale apartments on its campus just south of Ballantyne, near U.S. 521 and S.C. 160. The apartments will be located in four-story buildings near the main entrance to Red Ventures' campus on Opportunity Lane, spread across 18 acres. The development is called SoBa @ RedStone, a portmanteau for "South of Ballantyne," and will also be adjacent to the RedStone retail development that's under construction by MPV Properties. That 310,000 square-foot development is anchored by a 14-screen movie theater. SoBa @ RedStone will be connected to the retail development with roads and trails for pedestrians and bicyclists. Red Ventures employees are expected occupy about half of the apartments, which will be separated from the office buildings by a lawn and landscaping. Construction will start this summer, with completion planned for early 2020. Amenities include a pool, dog park and "dog spa," community gardens, outdoor grills, a gym with yoga studio and an "Uber lounge" for people waiting for ride-hailing services to pick them up. [4]

Fig 2.Red Ventures development [4]

Fig 3. Red Ventures housing for employees [4]

Fig 4.The RedStone main plan [5]

Another development is Willow Village, which will be constructed between Bayfront Expressway and roughly O'Brien Drive from Willow Road to University Avenue, consists of 1.75 million square feet of offices; a minimum of 1,500 housing units, including at least 225 below market rate; 126,500 square feet of retail including a grocery store and pharmacy; 200 hotel rooms; and 18 acres of open space, of which eight are to be publicly accessible. It will also include approximately 5,300 parking spaces and a cultural/visitor center at the corner of Willow Road and the Dumbarton corridor. One difference from the traditional company-town model is that Facebook's village would be open to the public. Besides housing its workers, Facebook said in a promotional video that the development was intended to create “pathways and connections” between its corporate headquarters and the surrounding residential neighborhoods of East Menlo Park and East Palo Alto, which are relatively poor by Silicon Valley standards. The grocery store might be particularly welcome in an area that has been described as a “food desert.”[6]

Fig 5.Menlo Park main plan [6] Fig 6. Menlo Park conceptual diagram [6]

Fig 7.Menlo Park regional planning [6]

Fig 8.Menlo Park render [6]

Fig 9 The render of IKEA housing [7]

IKEA in Iceland is building a house with 36 apartments, meant for their staff. Perhaps for students as well, or staff at Costco (which will open in the same area as IKEA this summer), according to Porarinn ^varsson, CEO of IKEA in Iceland. The aim is to guarantee safe housing for the staff at a reasonable price.

A real estate company connected to IKEA will own the house. It is not yet clear how much it will cost exactly, but the estimated rent for the smallest apartments, fully furnished, will be under 100.000 ISK, “That's a lot less than people pay for a dump here and there in town,” says ^varsson.

Thor Aevarsson, country manager of IKEA Iceland, tells Business Insider that the apartments will be tiny, ranging from 269 square feet to 613 square feet.

Tesla is looking to expand Gigafactory 1, with Elon Musk recently stating during a conversation with NV Gov. Brian Sandoval that he envisions the company to hire more than 20,000 people for the factory. To help house this upcoming influx of workers, Musk noted that Tesla is looking to create an onsite housing compound in Gigafactory 1's premises.

It remains to be seen what type of housing Tesla would introduce for Gigafactory 1's employees. That said, the housing initiative does go in line with some ideas that Elon Musk recently expressed. During his now-infamous podcast with Joe Rogan, for one, Musk teased the concept of a smart home with a more efficient air conditioning system. Musk's side venture, The Boring Company, has also developed the Boring Bricks, which are designed as a cost-effective way to construct homes. Considering Elon Musk's penchant for the creative, there is a good chance that Tesla's on-site housing compound at Gigafactory 1 might feature some notable elements as well.[8]

Another example is EUPA - it is a factory located in Xiamen, China that not only provides 17,000 people with jobs, but houses them as well. The territory is the size of the city and functions like a community. Many workers live with their families, company hosts employee weddings, moreover workers are allowed to send their children to the school within factory walls. In this way a company shows loyalty towards the workforce, it can help the company to succeed in the future. Happy members means a productive team. EUPA practice a sort of family lifestyle and this motivates the employees to not only meet certain quotas, but exceed them. The workers are trained well for their jobs and are encouraged to rotate tasks to keep initiative alive and to prevent boredom in the workplace. Another aspect that the company took well into consideration is their approach to the misconception of the difficulty of the planning and organizing parts of building an organization; EUPA understood that it is the leading and controlling areas that must be focused on, so they created a position that specifically ensures that everything and everyone is running at a smooth and productive pace as well as one that prioritizes the morale of each employee in every department. [9]

Conclusions

Based on the information provided above we can say that housing for highly qualified working migrants is extremely important. There is a need for a specific typology to be developed with all the necessary feathers for the employees.

Important factors that need to be used at the begging of the development of housing for employees are:

Prospects of the city development.It is important to carefully study the city's prospective development plans, consider the strategy for further development, infrastructure development, and new transportation solutions. This approach is particularly relevant when considering the option of investing in the construction of new housing for highly qualified migrant workers.

City area.The choice of location and housing construction should be based on criteria such as proximity to the head office I firm location of the migrant or a convenient infrastructure.

Security.The level of security of the location not only affects the lifestyle but also determines the level of costs for the security of the apartment - the installation of solid front doors, the installation of an alarm system. In assessing the security of the area, attention should be paid to the level of crime, the illumination of streets and yards in the dark, the frequency of patrolling the area, the proximity of high-risk areas.

General infrastructure.The presence of a pharmacy, grocery stores near the house is a significant plus for the location.

Ecology.There are significant environmental problems in big cities. Therefore, it is important to know whether there is a negative impact of industrial production, and pay attention to the distance of the house from the freeways, to avoid excessive traffic.

The further research should be done in order to identify more characteristics that can be used in the development of the housing for working migrant.

1. Crawford, M. (1995) Building the Workingman's Paradise: The Design of American Company Towns [Books.Google] Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2u5E5Rh_[in English] (1995)

2. Novak, M. (2014). Blood on the Tracks in Pullman: Chicagoland's Failed Capitalist Utopia [Paleofuture.Gizmodo], Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2GRj4MQ [in English].(2014, November, 13)

3. Forrest, A. Top employers are helping with city housing (2018) [Raconteur] Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2H1VkWx_[in English] ( 2018, June, 22)

4. Portillo, E. (2018) This fast-growing company near Charlotte is building apartments for its workers [Charlotteobserver] Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2Uju2mc [in English] ( 2018, May, 29)

5. Dunn, A. (2018) With Red Ventures building apartments for employees, is Charlotte returning to the age of the company town [Charlotteagenda] Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2RSELSO_[in English] (2018, June, 4)

6. Kelly, K. (2018) Menlo Park: Facebook's workforce will equal city's population [Mercurynews] Retrieved from https://bayareane.ws/37Uip9h_ [in English] (2018, March, 2)

7. (2017) IKEA Iceland to build apartments for staff [Iceland Monitor] Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2Uid1sB [in English] (2017, April, 5)

8. Alvarez, S. (2018) Tesla is looking to build on-site housing for Gigafactory 1 employees, says Elon Musk [Teslarati] Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2uiIP63 [in English] ( 2018, October, 11)

9. Factory City: EUPA. Documentary China labors and the largest factory in the world, EUPA (2018). http://bit.ly/3b9A8eI

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