Large housing estates in transition. Intersectional perspectives on the usage behavior and needs of residents

• Applicants: Dr. Hanna Haag; Professorin Dr.-Ing. Maren Harnack; Professor Dr. Sebastian Schipper
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research ; City Planning, Spatial Planning, Transportation and Infrastructure Planning, Landscape Planning
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 553950997

The research project creates a scientific basis for the understanding of post-war modernist large- scale housing estates. The Post-War Modernism Research Laboratory (Prof. Maren Harnack), the Gender and Women's Research Centre of the Hessian Universities (Dr. Hanna Haag) and the Heisenberg Professorship of Geographical Urban Research at Goethe University (Prof. Sebastian Schipper) cooperate in an interdisciplinary approach. They combine expertise from geography, sociology and architecture/urban planning, aiming at making visible the dynamic effects between society, the individual and built environment. In the future this might serve as a new starting point for the further development of large housing estates. Using predominantly qualitative and ethnographic methods, the research focuses on the life-world (Lebenswelt) of the residents of large housing estates and aims to gain access to their everyday life experiences. Through the interaction of three intertwined subprojects with a sociological, a geographical and an architectural/urban design focus will show how the interactions between body/people and space are structured, for which activities (including work, leisure, care) they use their homes as well as public and semi-public open and indoor spaces of the neighbourhood and which spatial constellations either limit their usage and needs or enable the appropriation of spaces. Regular, pre-structured workshops ensure the integration of intermediate findings and their mutual utilization. Thus, the project will extend existing research with an approach that reflects the complexity of the field. The project has the three main research objectives. It will generate 1) Insights into the everyday use of space and specific utilization patterns in homes and open spaces of large housing estates by individuals and households. The project will establish how the everyday use of space and the specific utilization patterns in the homes and public open spaces of large housing estates are organized and experienced by individual residents and what deficits might occur. 2) Findings on the needs for amenities, communal facilities, and options to appropriate spaces. The project will establish how of groups and collectives use, experience, and appropriate spaces and how deficiencies and gaps can possibly be addressed. 3) Insights into the interdependencies between architecture, the built environment and its residents as well as the characteristics of spatial structures that enable appropriation. In doing so, the project will establish how architecture and urban design influence the interactions of its inhabitants and which spatial structures enable, promote or prevent appropriation by their users.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants