Design Between the Lines - The Transformation of Living in Postwar Public Housing

Design Studio: Between the Lines –
The Transformation of Living in Postwar Municipal Housing

Design Studio (UE Entwerfen)
Master’s Course in Architecture
Winter Semester 2023/24 | 253.K57 | 10 ECTS
Franziska Orso, Judith M. Lehner, Ulrike Pitro

To conceive of housing as an urban practice and transformative activity (wohnbund e. V./HCU 2016) today means engaging intensively—beyond housing construction itself—with the interface between everyday life and architectural practice within the existing built environment.

“It always starts with the existing city and we have to find situations to improve, to repair or to take care of – the people, their tranquility, their quietness, the space around them… all of these things that exist.”
(Jean-Philippe Vassal / Lacaton & Vassal)

The monofunctional large-scale housing estates that emerged in response to the postwar housing shortage embody the paradigms of modernism: a functionally separated city and serial production techniques gave rise to new housing and settlement forms. Linear housing blocks were one response to the demand for more light, air, and sun. Today, these large housing estates—with their standardized floor plans, repetitive structures, and generously designed green spaces—often form islands within the urban fabric.

With a view toward the diversity of contemporary housing models and future challenges, we ask: What demands do we place today on the future of housing and residential environments? What visions follow the modernist experiment? Based on a shared vision developed throughout the course, spatial, organizational, and legal structures as well as everyday practices are rethought and reassembled within design proposals.

As a foundation for the projects, we analyze different spatial and temporal contexts and explore adaptations of already implemented solution strategies. These analyses beyond familiar settings serve as a starting point to identify diverse elements of designing within existing structures and ultimately to compile a collection of replicable interventions for postwar housing estates, with a focus on everyday use.

In cooperation with the Research Center for New Social Housing (future.lab, TU Wien) and experts from various disciplines, including Julia Girardi-Hoog (Wiener Wohnen) and Prof. Peter Bauer (Research Unit for Structural Design and Timber Engineering).

Photo: Architekten Payer