Self-Build Meets Municipal Housing

The aim of the symposium is to rethink self-build: Could strategies from the Viennese Siedler movement be employed for subsidised housing in the future, too? This is discussed at the Az W by an international panel of experts.

The idea of DIY in the housing sector is not new. Following historical experiments at the beginning of the 20th century self-build is currently experiencing a revival, and not just as informally practised in the global South. For a number of years housing projects have also been emerging in Europe where the prospective users are involved in the building process. Although these projects are usually for private homeowner initiatives. What might a new ‘Viennese model’ in conjunction with subsidised rental housing look like?

International stakeholders introduce completed projects at the symposium and discuss them with Viennese participants, asking whether social housing projects in conjunction with forms of self-build might present a cost-saving and integrative model for the future. The guidelines scheduled for introduction in Vienna will be outlined in the course of the discussion — from the legal framework to social issues and construction logistics.

The symposium closes with a keynote speech by the Indian architect Anupama Kundoo — who, at the latest, also became known to an international public with the installation of her low-cost Wall House at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2016.

The symposium, conceived in collaboration with the Az W, is part of a research project by Sabine Pollak and Silja Tillner in cooperation with the IBA_Wien — Neues Soziales Wohnen.

Welcome address:

Angelika Fitz, Az W
Michael Ludwig, Wohnbaustadtrat, Vienna

Guest speakers:

Anne-Julchen Bernhardt / Jörg Leeser, BeL Sozietät für Architektur BDA, Cologne (D)
Wolfgang Förster, Head of IBA_Wien — Neues Soziales Wohnen, Vienna (A)
Michael Gehbauer, WBV-GPA Wohnbauvereinigung für Privatangestellte Gemeinnützige GmbH, Vienna (A)
Katrin Golda-Pongratz, architect and architecture theorist, Barcelona (ES)
Marie-Therese Harnoncourt, the next ENTERprise, Vienna (A)
Pia Ilonen, Talli Architecture & Design, Helsinki (FI)
Anupama Kundoo, architect (IN)
Gernot Mitter, Arbeiterkammer Wien
Achim Nagel, PRIMUS developments GmbH, Hamburg (D)
Sabine Pollak, Köb & Pollak Architektur, Vienna (A)
Jana Richter / Henri Praeger, Praeger Richter Architekten GmbH, Berlin (D)
Cornelia Schindler, S & S Architekten, Vienna (A)
Ernst Schlossnickel, Stadtbaudirektion, Vienna (A)
Silja Tillner, Tillner & Willinger ZT GmbH, Vienna (A)