IBA Research School: Postpandemic Social Housing

VIENNA INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL

In the framework of the International Building Exhibition (IBA_ Vienna) on “New Social Housing”, which will take place in Vienna in 2022, the TU Wien and the University of Vienna established a research cluster (“ResearchLab”) to encourage interdisciplinary, critical and comparative research in the field of social housing and urban development. To accomplish this goal, the ResearchLab started in 2018 with a series of annual International Summer Schools on relevant aspects of social housing 

In 2021, the summer school will turn to the far-reaching functional changes and challenges that appeared or exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic and changed, at least temporarily, the character and meaning of “home”: from a simple domicile with specific functions (recreation, intimacy) to a space in which residents had to isolate themselves be it alone, or in family or other living arrangements. For many, their home has turned  into a setting that abruptly had to meet various needs at once, including work-place and learning environment, child care and further care duties. Regardless of extremely different urban, social and cultural contexts, the experience of confinement, the need to stay at home and manage basically all aspects of the everyday at one place proved a massive stress test for individuals and households all over the world. It also raised questions for post pandemic architecture and urban design. 

In this context, the summer school invites to discuss the housing problems and consequences of the pandemic. 

A main focus is on a reappraisal of the concepts of “home” and “household”:  Is an appropriate response to strive for designs that manage to cater all these functions in one dwelling? Or is there rather a need to defend the home against these demands? What does it do to individuals and households when they have to balance work, school and care within their home? How can people best be supported and relieved from pressures and frictions that arise in tense and crowded spaces?

The public part of the International Summerschool includes two events

Monday, 13.9., 14-18h

Contours of Postpandemic Social Housing (Digital Symposium)
With contributions by: Silvia Federici, Iván Tosics, Felipe de Ferrari, Amita Bhide, Steffen Wetzstein, Hubert Klumpner, Anne-Julchen Bernhardt, Christoph Schmidt und Christophe Hutin.

Program details and registration

Tuesday, 14.9., 19:30 – 22h

Redefining the Home in the Postpandemic City (Hybrid: TUtheSky and digital Livestream)
Inputs by Emma Dowling, Professor for Sociology at the University of Vienna
Carlo Ratti, Professor for Urban Technologies and Planning and Director of the Senseable City Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Responses: Julia Girardi-Hoog, Wiener Wohnen
Christophe Hutin, Christophe Hutin Architecture, Bordeaux
Michael Obrist, TU Wien
Amila Širbegović, Architect and Urban Researcher at IBA_Vienna

Program Details and Registration