Affordable By Design

Affordable by design.

I learned this phrase through the topic of affordable housing. Incorporating good (home, community, and urban planning) design to make free market housing more accessible across the country.

It relates to a book that Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein are writing about how we need to get better at building in America. Not manufacturing (per se) but building to solve the climate crisis, housing crisis, etc. "Abundance: What Progress Takes" releases January 14, 2025.

I want to see them write a second book, "Abundance: What Progress Takes in Education". The book would be in the same vein but applied to the future of learning. In education, affordable abundance by design doesn't come through building more bricks and mortar but thinking more expansively about weaving together learning digitally, on campus, in the community, and in the workplace to improve relevance, decrease cost, and expand opportunity.