11. Forum Architekturwissenschaft. TRANSFORMATION. Bestand umbauen, Bestehendes umedenken. Erneute gemeinwohlorientierte Forderungen: Transforming the Invisible (Vortrag)

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Vortrag Current architectural discourse revolves around the question of how to engage with the existing building stock. The focus is on renovation, re-densification, retro-fitting and the transformation of the built fabric in the face of climate crisis, limited resources and the urgent need for re-use and circular economy strategies. Yet, how do we address what remains invisible? Those aspects of the built environment that do not manifest in walls, facades, or architectural elements, but in everyday practices, social imaginaries, neighbourly contacts, and collective memories, i.e. the social fabric. This web of relations has grown over time, shaped and experienced by its users, yet is rarely acknowledged as a resource. This contribution explores these intangible dimensions through the example of Vienna’s largely forgotten ‘Alte-Leute-Siedlungen’ (settlements for older adults) built in municipal housing in the 1950s and 1960s. In response to the housing shortage and demographic change of the post-war period, the City undertook a social housing experiment, constructing more than thirty small-scale settlements for older adults embedded within larger municipal housing estates. The housing model combined architecture with a social vision: self-determined aging, social participation and neighbourly care. Barrier-reduced apartments were paired with communal open spaces – the so-called ‘social green’ for everyday encounters. Here, the social fabric was not only considered but spatially planned, inscribed in the built environment itself. Today, while many of these settlements still exist physically, their original social function has eroded. Some have been renovated, repurposed, of left vacant and deteriorating. The housing model has largely disappeared from collective memory. While the built fabric remains, its ‘unbuilt’ qualities have been lost – along with intangible resources that extend far beyond the material. In light of today’s interrelated crisis of climate, housing and care, it becomes clear: the intangible dimensions of the built fabric – social infra- structures, everyday practices, neighbourhood networks – need stronger attention when addressing the transformation of the existing stock. This paper argues for a perspective that understands transformation not only as a physical intervention but as a social practice – one that brings together built fabric and social fabric. It is precisely the ‘unbuilt’ that holds untapped potential for resilient, community- oriented housing. Transformation does not begin with material alterations, it begins with making the invisible visible, acknowledging it, and building upon it.

Titel der Veranstaltung

Transformation. 11. Forum Architekturwissenschaft

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