Shared spaces, commons, communal areas in Viennese housing

Courses on “Shared Spaces, Commons and Community Rooms in Vienna’s Housing”

Summer Semester 2024

In the summer semester 2024, we will focus on shared spaces, commons, and community rooms in Vienna’s housing. The growing interest in community spaces is no coincidence: current debates on new collective housing models (such as co-living or collective urban housing), as well as housing policy goals promoting “living in community,” call for an in-depth examination of new forms of collectively used spaces.

Responding to the socio-diagnostic observation of a “return of community in late modernity” (Rosa et al. 2010), we will empirically investigate this phenomenon through case studies on the use of community spaces. We want to explore how much “community” actually exists within community rooms:

What is understood by “community,” and by whom?

Through which practices is it produced?

Which ideas and expectations do planners and developers associate with the design of community spaces?

To what extent are these ideals realized in everyday residential practice?

Approach and Methodology

To address these questions, we will closely examine selected housing complexes in Vienna. One aim of the course is to understand the historical and cultural development of community spaces in both form and function—from the superblocks of “Red Vienna” to contemporary residential towers.

In a first step, we will distinguish between different typologies of community spaces and differentiate Vienna’s housing stock along a historical timeline. Following an initial overview combined with site visits, we will select specific examples from municipal and subsidized housing for in-depth case studies.

Fieldwork will be conducted in small teams and complemented by extended joint excursions (e.g., to the Karl-Marx-Hof, In der Wiesn Süd, Sonnwendviertel, or Seestadt Aspern). Practical research will be supported by theoretical input. In engaging with key concepts such as community, society, and social infrastructure, we will draw on sociological theory (e.g., Ferdinand Tönnies, Émile Durkheim, Hartmut Rosa).

Research Focus

Within the course, students will conduct a small empirical research project with an architectural and planning focus. The emphasis will be on practices of appropriation, use, and access related to community spaces in Vienna’s housing.

We will primarily work with qualitative methods, including:

Various forms of interviews

Group discussions

Participant observation

Mapping

Data will either be collected directly by students (e.g., interviews, photographs, observation protocols) and/or drawn from existing materials. Central to the course is the joint interpretation of self-collected or compiled data on the social phenomenon of shared spaces, commons, and community rooms—an issue of particular relevance for future planners and architects.

Courses

SE 280.948 – Everyday Life, Difference and Intersectionality in Urban Research | 3 ECTS
From Wednesday, 06 March 2024, 13:00–16:00
Seminar Room AC 02-2

EX 280.A98 – Focus Spatial Planning: “Shared Spaces, Commons and Community Rooms in Vienna” | 3 ECTS
Accompanying excursion course

SE 264.226 – Elective Seminar in Cultural and Architectural Sociology | 5 ECTS

Students of Architecture and Spatial Planning are welcome! The seminar should be taken together with the accompanying excursion (280.A98).

The course is held in collaboration with the elective seminar in Cultural and Architectural Sociology (Curriculum 033 243 Architecture).

Teaching Staff

Simon Güntner
Judith Lehner
Ernst Gruber
Gerald Kössl
Anita Aigner