Now and Then. The Social Housing Retrofit Studio

Ernst May Prize 2025

The transformation of post-war social housing has become a central theme in current architectural debate. This sudden spark of interest is largely driven by the urgent need to address the obsolescence of these buildings, in parallel with the intention of planners to ‘rectify’ matters at the crossroads between social conditions and spatial qualities, related for example to the economic conditions of residents and the image of these urban neighbourhoods. As post-war residential buildings approaching their end-of-life cycle are ubiquitous, it should come as no surprise that the question of what to do with this housing stock is becoming urgent. While a few recent transformation projects have been hailed as successes, many housing agencies and municipalities still struggle to determine the best course of action.

As part of the 2025 edition of the Ernst May Prize, the studio will engage with a real-world context in collaboration with Unternehmensgruppe Nassauische Heimstätte | Wohnstadt (NHW). This partnership will provide students with the opportunity to tackle real challenges and gain first-hand experience within a major housing organization. In answering to the question of how we rehabilitate an aging social-housing stock when financial constraints do not allow complete refurbishment, the studio’s objective is to cultivate systemic thinking by critically examining what transformation means within specific socio-economic and physical conditions. Students will explore alternative approaches and assess design possibilities.

Although each student will work independently, the studio functions as a collective unit, tackling a series of case studies and generating well-grounded architectural knowledge. Through extensive fieldwork and feedback sessions, students will develop feasible transformation scenarios. Rather than producing a conventional semester project, the studio’s focus is on crafting strategies that are deeply embedded in the realities of the buildings under study. Ultimately, the studio aims to deliver a comprehensive feasibility report that NHW can reference when making key decisions about the future of these housing projects.

The ‘excursion week’ will be dedicated to conducting extensive group fieldwork in each case study, meeting with residents and representatives of the NHW, a one-day symposium in Darmstadt, and a housing tour in the Frankfurt region. At the end of the semester all proposals will be evaluated by a competition jury, which will award several prizes. The jury meeting and the accompanying exhibition will be held in Frankfurt in the fall.

Dates:

First Meeting:
23.04.2025, 10:00 – 17:00

Review 1:
21.05.2025

Review 2:
11.06.2025

Review 3:
02.07.2025

Final Review:
23.07.2025

Teaching Staff:

Prof. Dr. Martino Tattara, Dipl.-Ing. Katrin Bialucha, M.Sc. Maximilian Kelle, Dr. Andrea Migotto

Language of instruction:

English

A hard day’s night. The architecture of the self-built house

This seminar explores the relationship between construction and domestic architecture through the study of self-building practices. The relevance of this topic stems from the evolving construction industry, which continuously develops new methods to accelerate building processes, reorganize construction sites, and manage rising costs of property, materials, and labour. Construction, intended as the relation between matter and making processes, has been slowly removed from architectural thinking. Since the 15th century, architecture has been understood primarily as the intellectual conception of a building, separate from the physical labour of its construction. This rigid distinction has shaped the role of the architect as a profession. However, this separation contradicts a fundamental reality of contemporary society: the necessity of interdisciplinary collaboration to ensure buildings can adapt to social and environmental challenges. This is where self-building offers valuable insights. In self-building, design and construction occur simultaneously, with manual skills of builders playing a central role in the design process. Self-building emerges out of necessity rather than for speculation or rhetoric, challenging conventional architectural frameworks.

Throughout the seminar, students will work individually while contributing to a collective research effort. Using drawings and physical models, participants will analyse various self-built projects to extract lessons for more socially and environmentally conscious building practices. The seminar will culminate in a public exhibition at the end of the semester.

Dates:

22.04.2025, 10:00 – 12:00
13.05.2025, 10:00 – 12:00
10.06.2025, 10:00 – 12:00
24.06.2025, 10:00 – 12:00

Teaching Staff:

Prof. Dr. Martino Tattara, Dipl.-Ing. Katrin Bialucha, M.Sc. Maximilian Kelle, Dr. Andrea Migotto

Language of instruction:

English

Gebäudetypologie 1 – Wohnen

Lecture & Excercise

Housing is one of the most pressing challenges in contemporary society and has historically been a central concern for architects. This course introduces students to the fundamentals of housing design through the study and discussion of a curated selection of exemplary projects. Each case study highlights a specific and relevant theme in housing design, bridging enduring architectural concepts—such as comfort, privacy, and collectivity—with emerging issues like alternative domestic arrangements, social and affordable housing, and the integration of living and working spaces.

Each case will be examined from two perspectives: by understanding the broader social, cultural, and architectural frameworks that shaped the project and through a typological analysis, aiming at exploring design strategies, spatial configurations, and technical solutions, therefore providing practical tools for design.

The course includes four small exercises, which students will complete throughout the semester. These exercises, alongside the course content, will form the basis for discussion during the final exam at the end of the semester.

First lecture:
22.04.2025, 8:00 – 09:40

Teaching Staff

Prof. Dr. Martino Tattara, Dipl.-Ing. Katrin Bialucha, M.Sc. Maximilian Kelle, Dr. Andrea Migotto

Language of instruction:

English and German