Launch of the Research Center New Social Housing: Global Housing Crisis - Local Responses? 13 October 2022
Launch of the Research Center New Social Housing:
Global Housing Crisis - Local Responses?
Thursday, 13 Oct 2022 | 5–9pm | Kontaktraum CD 06 03, Gußhausstraße 27-29/6.OG, 1040 Wien
Housing and crisis are terms closely connected and debated jointly not only in the academic realm. Responses are manifold and often local, while drivers are complex and interconnected globally. However, the polarizing dynamics on the housing market are reproducing social inequalities and ranging across scales. Homeownership through mortgages, ‚right-to-buy‘ policies or housing micro-financing are globally spreading mechanisms of housing financialization that convert housing into commodity – producing expulsion for many and accumulation for some. Against this background, local responses of grassroots movements and city administrations refer to the right to adequate housing (UDHR) and the SDG 11.1. (UN).
In this context, housing research that informs such responses requires a transdisciplinary understanding of both global and local dynamics, also in regard to the specificity and uniqueness of all ‘ordinary’ cities (Robinson 2006). Bringing together histories, methodologies and geographical contexts in housing research is one step for a ‘more globalized and open-minded dialogue‘ (Powell/Simone 2022).
With the launch of the Research Center New Social Housing, we would like to advance towards this dialogue in housing research starting with keynotes by Sandi Hilal (DAAR Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency), David Madden (LSE) and Raquel Rolnik (University of São Paulo) and a subsequent discussion on the interconnectedness of the ‘Global Housing Crisis and Local Responses’. Thinking across scales, beyond disciplinary boundaries and territorial borders we would like to pose the following questions in this even: What are necessary forms of knowledge about policy, housing design and everyday life that need to be considered in housing research? How could possible hands-on approaches look like when it comes to housing provision and activism? What is the social dimension of (social) housing?
The Research Center New Social Housing emerged from a cooperation between the International Building Exhibition IBA_Vienna 2022, the TU Wien (future.lab – Prof. Rudolf Scheuvens, Research Unit Sociology – Prof. Simon Güntner, Research Unit Housing and Design – Prof. Michael Obrist) and the University of Vienna (Department of Sociology – Prof. Christoph Reinprecht). As a continuation of the IBA-ResearchLab, the Center promotes interdisciplinary, critical and comparative research in the field of social housing and urban development. To this end, international summer schools have been held annually since 2018 on relevant aspects of social housing. The Center – coordinated by Judith M. Lehner – aims at institutional networking between different disciplinary research fields and at a transdisciplinary cooperation involving actors of Viennese housing production. As a platform, it supports critical housing research by young researchers with a focus on basic research and promotes the international visibility and networking of Viennese housing research. Taking into account the interactions between architecture, planning and society, the Center New Social Housing offers space for new ideas at disciplinary intersections, supports experimental housing research with methods and tools of architecture, planning and social sciences, and promotes broadening perspectives beyond disciplinary boundaries.
On 13 October 2022, 5–9pm, the official launch of the Center will be an occasion to shed light on the global-local connections of housing and dwelling and to set the direction for upcoming research projects.
Programme
17:00
Welcome
Rudolf Scheuvens, TU Wien
Kurt Hofstetter, IBA Wien
Book preview
Simon Güntner, TU Wien
Christoph Reinprecht, University of Vienna
Research Center Introduction
Judith M. Lehner, TU Wien
18:30
Reception
19:30
Keynote Lectures
Sandi Hilal, DAAR
David Madden, LSE London
Raquel Rolnik, University of São Paulo
Local Responses
Emma Dowling, University of Vienna
Michael Obrist, TU Wien