WiSe 24/25 Waking Dormant Housing Futures

Next year marks the 100th anniversary of Neues Frankfurt, a project that was realized based on the vision of a future where new technologies, typologies but also social economies would provide for adequate housing for the many. This semester we will examine such mass housing concepts as a phenomenon of the 20th century, their shortcomings, but also their benefits, architectural expression, tools such as repetition and standardization. If new building technologies such as reinforced concrete and prefabricated elements enabled the building of mass housing in the 20th century, and if reduction of load bearing elements gave way to more freedom of design back then, we want to project into the future: What offers itself as “new” in housing today with regards to the social and the ecological crisis at the same time? What are the contemporary architectural and economic tools with which we can re-design affordable housing for the many?

The seminar “LEARNING FROM NEUES FRANKFURT” offers an in-depth understanding of this mass housing project. During the seminar we will visit the sites of the Siedlungen of New Frankfurt and analyze their floor plans, urbanism, ownership, economy and other characteristics. We will devote our time to understanding elements such as repetition, standardization and insulation as main topics of production and design of mass housing in the 20th century by means of deep reading, group discussions and seminar papers. This research seminar supports the vertical studio “COMMON HOUSING FUTURES”.

In our in-depth seminar we investigate possible housing futures based on historical housing movements, politics and policies and their representations in magazines. We will read and analyze early 20th century publications such as “Das Neue Frankfurt”, "Das Neue Berlin", "Die Neue Frau", "Die Wohnung", but also authors that deal with contemporary movements for housing justice today – such as DWE. We engage in creative expressions of housing issues of today and work on representation of the future of housing by editing and publishing a zine that is inspired by the publications such as Bauhaus, New Frankfurt, Red Vienna. We will combine the structure of the magazine with new needs in designing, developing, financing and organizing housing and communal life for many.

Our department ARCHITECTURE CITIES ECONOMIES is part of the Partisan Design Network! The student camp of the Partisan Design Network will take place in Berlin from October 9 to 11, 2024. Teachers and students from twelve universities with different design focuses will meet to discuss how design teaching can be practically and critically oriented towards real-world problems.
The Partisan Design Camp takes up current student questions on design and inequality in the context of burning social and ecological crises by claiming to support socially marginalized groups and concerns. In a good twenty workshops, the different partisan design approaches of the various schools and groups will be put up for discussion, critically expanded or cooked together.

As part of the long-lasting interrelationship of ASL with La Universidad Central "Marta Abreu" de Las Villas (UCLV), located in Santa Clara, Cuba, we are happy to announce a study trip to Cuba including a student workshop at UCLV in which we will collaborate with the faculty and students in Santa Clara on architectural/planning tasks they are currently pursuing. Also, we will visit the rich history of architecture and public space, university and school projects, neighborhoods and self-help housing projects in Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, in Havana and more.

The seminar is the continuation of the analytical-projective Go:Green seminar “Caring and Sharing of University Space” held in the summer semester 2024, with which an important process was started for the rooms of Faculty 06 / ASL as well as for other departments of the university in the future. This aims to create a new culture of self-critical awareness of the necessity of sharing and caring of university space as well as the reuse and upcycling of discarded furniture.
By focusing on the question of use and creative design, the seminar “Design Your Shared University Space” responds to the students' realization that complex changes to familiar conditions require good planning and sufficient time and space for a grassroots democratic process. We are thus responding to the students' wish to deal with the forms of use of the existing rooms and the future rooms still to be set up in the production hall in the coming semester.

“Freies Umbaustudio” is a studio of self-organized projects, which students suggest themselves to pursue. It is mostly focused on students in their final semester before the bachelor or master thesis.
The focus must be on "Umbau", be it conservation of vacant houses through transformation or reconstruction, circular building economy or urban reuse scenarios. Students apply in advance of the semester start with their exposé.

Happy to inform about our master's specialization which deals with the range of socio-economic aspects of planning: the interdependencies of building economy and housing crisis, property and affordability, financing and project development, as well as with a comprehensive eco-social cost determination in the context of climate and distribution justice.
With our courses – which we offer every term in design, practice and theory – we provide a study atmosphere to acquire a deep understanding of the relationship of architecture and economy in order to use it critically and productively within the architectural and planning realm.
Every semester we provide all special courses, which can be chosen freely.