Between Revolution and Convention. Housing in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Housing in the 20th century was hallmarked in an international context by revolutionary breaks with the past and innovation on both an aesthetic and a social level. These two orientations seldom came together, however when they did the result was frequently architecture and urban development projects that attracted worldwide attention.

Wolfgang Förster illustrates this development on the basis of 25 prototypical projects representing different housing policies and social and regional developments, and poses the question of how housing can react to the 21st century challenges of continued urbanisation, increasing scarcity of resources, growing social segregation and third world mega cities. Is it with unlimited growth, spaces for an open society, or by a radical return to the sources of a socially engaged architecture?

An introductory lecture by Wolfgang Förster is followed by a panel discussion between well known experts in the field, who will consider these positions and their significance for housing, urban development and architecture training.

The panel:
Cuno Brullmann, Institut für Wohnbau, Vienna University of Technology (invited)
Wolfgang Förster, Wiener Wohnbau Forschung, MA 50
Barbara Kanzian, konstruktiv
Gerhard Schuster, BUWOG
Jonny Winter, BKK-3
Moderated by Ute Woltron, architecture correspondent

Wolfgang Förster: Wohnen im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert/Housing in the 20th and 21st Centuries, 176 pages, 253 illustrations, hardcover, Prestel Verlag, ISBN 3-7913-3529-4