| Hello and welcome to Bloomberg’s weekly design digest. I’m Kriston Capps, staff writer for Bloomberg CityLab and your guide to the world of architecture and the people who build things. This week the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and the Chicago Athenaeum released their yearly Europe 40 under 40 list of young architects. Sign up to keep up: Subscribe to get the Design Edition newsletter every Sunday.  The 15-unit Landskronhof apartment complex, designed by HHF Architects for a tight infill spot in Basel, would be unthinkable to build in the US. Photographer: Maris Mezulis Law professors Chris Elmendorf and David Schleicher published an essay this week about what pro-housing groups in the US should do next to cement some of the victories they’ve seen over the last few years. The Yes In My Backyard movement, they write, has picked up wins in both ruby-red Montana and Texas and deep-blue California and New York by acting like a single-issue interest group. Housing supporters have built coalitions in order to pass ambitious zoning laws by talking about property rights and personal liberties to Republicans while engaging Democrats on climate and racial equity. To take this momentum further, pundits have argued that pro-housing groups need to act more like a party, bundling issues as diverse as transit, energy and healthcare with housing under the umbrella of “abundance.” Elmendorf and Schleicher add to this refrain by saying that YIMBYs need to focus on city governance. Their research shows that people’s attitudes about big cities overall drive how receptive they are to pro-housing arguments. “The public’s willingness to support the core YIMBY objective of greater housing density may be quite sensitive to the government’s success or failure in other domains of municipal governance,” they write. On the priority list of quality-of-life concerns that determine how people rate cities — factors that include crime, transit and jobs — building design ranks pretty low. But it’s not zero. Design is the kind of background cultural amenity that comes to the fore in discussions of specific housing proposals. And unlike crime or healthcare, design is an urban concern that YIMBY policies can address directly through building codes.  A small infill social housing project designed by Jean-Christophe Quinton Architecte for Paris is served by a single stairwell. Courtesy of Jean-Christophe Quinton Architecte The best example may be the push for single-stair reform. Most all cities across the US require apartment buildings of more than three stories to be designed with double-loaded corridors: hallways anchored by stairwells at each end. This restriction results in larger buildings with smaller units and less variation in overall layout. The typical “5-over-1” building — square, boxy and loathed from coast to coast — is a direct product of stairwell regulations. Most 5-over-1s don’t look this good. Across Europe and South America, however, designers can build much taller buildings with just single stairways. These point-access blocks allow for more diverse and generous layouts and smaller, narrower buildings. An elegant infill design by Jean-Christophe Quinton Architecte for social housing in Paris isn’t likely legal to build anywhere in the US. Point-access blocks allow designers to come up with creative solutions for more-dense housing in cities, like the Landskronhof condo building that HHF Architects managed to Tetris into a tight lot in Basel, Switzerland. Typically, when design comes up in housing debates, it takes the form of regulations. Design mandates and historic neighborhood districting raise costs for homeowners and add lengthy reviews for developers. These rules can be way for neighbors and homevoters to say no to projects they don’t want to see built in their backyards. But there’s a yes answer to design questions in these debates: Single-stair reform allows more diverse and more attractive kinds of housing to be built in more neighborhoods, at lower cost, with better options for families. And better-looking buildings to boot. Design stories we’re writing |  The lobby of the Waldorf Astoria New York. Photographer: Seth Caplan for Bloomberg Pursuits The Waldorf Astoria is one of New York’s most magnificent hotels, but for the better part of the last decade, it’s been a construction site. In a project that spanned 8 years, the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill renovated the 1.6-million-square-foot structure, restoring it to the original 1931 specifications by the great Gotham architects Schultze & Weaver — in some cases, realizing features that were never built in the first places. Nikki Ekstein writes about the revival of a New York Art Deco landmark. Design stories we’re reading | Rachel Gallahar explores a graceful design by Olson Kundig for a community church in Seattle. (Architectural Record) Kristine Klein celebrates 250 years of architecture postage stamps. (The Architect’s Newspaper) Mark Lamster is thinking about how designers can memorialize Texas flood victims. (The Dallas Morning News) | 
