#21 Future(s) of Social Housing

With this issue, we take a moment to reflect on a year of collective inquiry into the futures of housing — a field shaped by rapid social, political and environmental transitions, but also by persistent and growing inequalities. What began as an international doctoral programme anchored at the Faculty of Architecture and Planning, TU Wien, soon unfolded into a wider conversation about how knowledge on housing is produced, shared and transformed across disciplines, regions and practices. The contributions collected here offer a snapshot of this process – deliberately so, because the debates they open are far from concluded.

Over the past year, doctoral candidates, advisers and coordinators across different disciplines have explored the complex entanglements that define today’s housing landscape: regulatory frameworks, lived practices, legal structures, environmental demands, and the everyday realities of residents. Encounters in Vienna and São Paulo, as well as an ongoing exchange across different geographies, revealed how profoundly housing research depends on situated knowledge and on a willingness to question established paradigms.

What emerged is a shared understanding that the future of (social) housing cannot be conceived purely as a technical, an architectural or a policy challenge. It requires transdisciplinary cooperation, new methodological approaches and the courage to rethink dominant narratives – from affordability and social justice to green transition and collective forms of living. We would like to thank those who contributed to this endeavour at the Faculty of Architecture and Planning, TU Wien, and our international collaborators at the London School of Economics, Politecnico Milano and Universidade São Paulo. 

This magazine invites readers to engage with these perspectives, to rethink what housing futures can be and to continue the dialogue that this programme has set in motion. Enjoy reading!

Judith M. Lehner, Bernadette Krejs and Selim Banabak 
(Coordinators of the New Social Housing Programme for Doctoral Candidates)