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.

Programme

10:00 Welcome address by Angelika Fitz, Architekturzentrum Wien, and Michael Ludwig, City of Vienna Executive City Councillor for Housing, Housing Construction and Urban Renewal

BLOCK 1

10:30 Wolfgang Förster (A), coordinator IBA_Wien, Internationale Bauausstellung Wien 2020-2022
Project management: The Vienna Model Lernen von der Wiener Siedlerbewegung

11:00 Sabine Pollak, Silja Tillner (A), architects
Gemeinsam siedeln, selbst bauen, interaktiv wohnen. Ein Wiener Modell 

11:30 Kathrin Golda-Pongratz (ES), Professor for Int. Urban Development in Frankfurt, Dwelling Resources in South America – eine Revision des Selbstbaus und der Thesen John F. C. Turners in El Ermitaño, Lima/Peru

12:00 Jörg Leeser (D), BeL Bernhardt und Leeser, Sozietät für Architektur, Hamburg, Kritischer Bericht über systemische Grenzen im Wohnbau

12.30 Lunch break

PANEL

14:00 Michael Gehbauer (A), WBV-GPA Wohnbauvereinigung für Privatangestellte Gemeinnützige GmbH, Vienna
Gernot Mitter (A), Arbeiterkammer Wien
Achim Nagel (D), Primus Development, Hamburg
Cornelia Schindler (A), ss | plus architektur, Vienna
Ernst Schlossnickel (A), Stadtbaudirektion Wien

16:00 Break

BLOCK 2

16:30 Pia Ilonen (FI), Talli Architecture and Design, Helsinki, Experimental DIY-housing projects in Helsinki

17:00 Henri Praeger (D), Praeger Richter Architekten, Berlin, Das Ausbauhaus-Konzept. Viel Raum zum Wohnen für unterschiedliche Lebensentwürfe und Budgets

17:30 Break

KEYNOTE SPEECH and RESPONSES

18:00 Welcome address by Michael Ludwig (A), City of Vienna Executive City Councillor for Housing

18:15 Anupama Kundoo (IN, ES), Anupama Kundoo architects, Madrid Building Knowledge, Building Community

19:15 Marie-Therese Harnoncourt (A), the next ENTERprise Architects, Vienna, Response

Concept: Sonja Pisarik, Az W, with Sabine Pollak and Silja Tillner