IBA ResearchLab Postpandemic Social Housing – summer school in Vienna | Wydział Architektury Politechniki Gdańskiej

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 postpandemic 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?

In a week of exchange and collaboration, we look for responses to these questions and invite contributions from all academic disciplines.

More information here.