Across Europe, the reconstruction period after the second world war was characterized by the main aim to provide as many apartments as possible as quickly as possible. This resulted in a little loved typology - the ‘housing block', characterized by a prefabricated and uniformous structure. This project develops a future perspective for these ensembles focusing on their great potential for renewable extension, enabling imagination about generous living standards and improvements for inhabitants.
National
Austria
Vienna
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Across Europe, cities are facing housing crisis. Paradoxically it is not the lack of built space, but a lack of distribution of space. The often overlooked role of postwar social housing blocks for providing affordable urban housing and their great potential for sustainable transformation and add-ons is at the heart of this project.
The reconstruction period after the second world war was characterised by the main aim to provide as many apartments as possible as quickly as possible. This resulted in a little loved typology - the social housing block. By transforming case study housing blocks based in Vienna (Vienna alone has potential for over 1000 SOLARBLOCKS), this project develops a sustainable and generous perspective for European ensembles, focusing on their great potential for extension, due to their free standing and standardised structure, sparking imagination about better living conditions and solar energy use in these social housing ensembles, that are reaching a critical age.
What will happen to the ‘Plattenbau’ during the coming European renovation wave? Will they be demolished? Will they be clad with toxic waste? No, they will become SOLARBLOCKS.
SOLARBLOCK is a circular low-tech system for transforming existing housing blocks into solar architectures. The Add-on is based on an innovative free standing wooden skeleton structure, creating a wintergarden extension of the current living areas, providing views, light, heat gains in winter, ventilation in summer as well as barrier-free access.
Due to the enormous amounts of carbon emissions and energy used in the construction industry today, from an ecological point of view, European cities have no other choice than to aim at preserving as much as possible. And why not? Why not use the existing space and dream of extended social housing blocks marking an emancipatory potential for a more sustainable and generous future for those who need it most.
Right to housing
Circular social housing transformation
Repair & care
Renovation wave
Participation & social equality
The concept of SOLARBLOCK is counter-acting the current principles of extractivism and capital gains by stopping demolition and developing new circular concepts of regeneration through improvement and extension of existing standardised free standing post-war social housing blocks. This is achieved on the one hand through meticulous analysis of existing structures, striving for minimal intervention, while on the other hand creating an efficient and sustainable low-tech system for extending existing structures. The Add-on is based on an innovative free standing wooden skeleton structure, creating a 3m extension of the current living area. These add-ons are not only providing more space and light, but also act as insulation buffers and solar collectors during winter, replacing toxic insulation materials and enabling better ventilation and shading during summer. It is a low-tech principle that appears through many cultures and climates (veranda, wintergarden, engawa, orangerie, etc.), but has been replaced in the post-war period by oil and gas-driven heating and cooling technologies that today prove to be part of the problem rather than the solution.
In terms of social sustainability SOLARBLOCK enables a fix to some of the ubiquitous access problems of post-war social housing blocks by creating a direct barrier-free access to every flat via the add-on area. Another key aspect of the concept being, that by not demolishing and minimally adapting the existing structure, inhabitants can stay during the transformation period. Furthermore, due to the lower costs of renovation and transformation rather than demolition, rents are kept stable without drastic increases.
Economic sustainability is achieved by extending the life-span of the ensembles, therefore drastically reducing not only material resources and energy but also costs. Similar concepts developed in the 70s-80s (Butti, K., & Perlin, J. (1980). A golden thread: 2500 years of solar architecture and technology. Che
Housing blocks possess often overlooked architectural qualities such as access to view, light, and open areas that are highlighted in the project. By enlarging the openings to the outside and creating an extra living space, the winter garden provides an additional room that can be used for a variety of purposes, such as a home office, a playroom, or a mere space for imagination. It allows natural light to enter the home, which can improve the overall well-being and creates a more fluid connection to the outdoors. It also helps to regulate the temperature inside, reducing heating and cooling costs. Furthermore it provides a peaceful and tranquil setting where one can relax and escape from the stresses of daily life. It can also be used to grow a variety of plants, including those that may not thrive in the local climate, which absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, making the space a natural air purifier. The add-on can be a great educational tool for children, teaching them about plant growth, biology, and the environment in general. By using raw wood as main building material for the simple low-tech construction, very open and aesthetic, light-flooded spaces are created, opening up opportunities for appropriation to the inhabitants. By using only robust materials such as wood, zinced steel and corrugated sheets, the whole structure is aimed for longevity and repairability. The right to repair is here extended to buildings as an aesthetic and emancipatory quality, taking part in the cultural transformation towards a circular society. The concept aims at preserving the old housing block through the enveloping layer and the wooden skeleton add-on is a timber storage for the future, therefore conserving and extending its longterm cultural value and identity.
The SOLARBLOCK concept provides a barrier-free access transformation (no moving during construction, elevators at same level, no barriers to open areas) and enables participation of the inhabitants during planning (swapping flats, combination of flats, growing/shrinking, shared flats) Furthermore it highlights the often overlooked historical and cultural value: Social housing blocks are an important part of a city's history and cultural identity. Demolishing them would erase this history and drastically change the city's character. Demolishing and rebuilding social housing is furthermore costly, especially if the new units are intended to be affordable for low-income residents. It is more cost-effective to renovate and upgrade existing buildings. Demolishing social housing blocks disrupts the lives of the residents who live there, as they may need to find temporary or permanent housing elsewhere. This can be especially difficult for vulnerable populations such as the elderly or those with disabilities. Social housing units are meant to be affordable for low-income residents. Demolishing and rebuilding these units results in the loss of affordable housing.
The participatory process is guided by an interdisciplinary team (inhabitants, caretakers, social workers, architects, housing authority / company) taking over stewardship for the care and repair of a specific housing ensemble. Therefore personal ties to a project are fostered, different stakeholders are equally heard and power for decision-making can be distributed.
Affordable housing embodies the intersection of the ecological and the social question. Here cities and societies in part define their intentions around inclusion, sustainability and affordability. By improving and extending precisely those spaces that are the foundation for social mobility, societies can tackle multiple urgent issues at once. We need a temporary halt to building demolitions and a focus on the potential for transformation and extension of the existing housing stock. To continue, to extend, to enlarge, instead of demolition and reconstruction, is more ecological, more economical, more gentle and more optimistic. It is also more creative, as french architects Lacaton & Vassal put it recently. We should regard the social housing estates as hidden treasures that have to be improved and extended continously. Simply because we won't be able to build as much in the future without extractivism.
SOLARBLOCK directly contributes to the transition from government to governance, turning away from a top-down approach towards a broader coalition of interests of multiple stakeholders in the field of affordable housing. It stands for the urge to ensure the right to affordable housing and aims at empowering various underrepresented stakeholders who contribute to that goal. From local housing activist groups, commoning initiatives and NGOs to circular building and architecture offices, research projects on innovative wooden building structures to public authorities and private companies providing green financing tools as well as circular financing tools to citizens and inhabitants (crowdlending), therefore enabling participation on many levels.
On a local level, the viennese social housing heritage (i.e. the ‘real utopia’ of the ’Red Vienna’) is critically questioned for its future potential and issues (i.e. blind-spot of post-war social housing blocks) and taken as departure case study for the broader regional and European perspective of SOLARBLOCK. The potential for transforming social housing blocks in different European countries is enormous. However it is crucial to critically filter preservation of achievements from results of injustice-enhancing mechanisms. The concept is tested under different social, legal and climatic constraints in order to ensure local appropriation for various European settings. It is therefore a position of constructive critique in a literal sense as well as a form of caring stewardship that negotiates many perspectives on the existing conditions forming the current ‘social housing block’. Thus the project not only circles around the physical aspects of affordable housing, but also includes social and legal aspects, which are necessary for extending and improving housing.
Affordable housing is a basic human right. Yet cities are facing a very different situation where especially marginalised groups do not have access to these basic rights. Even Vienna, often cited as a role model for its social housing history during the last century leading up to today is under high pressure due to the financialisation of the housing sector as well as exclusionary access rules to the social housing programs. In order to counter act these developments alliances between underrepresented stakeholders such as NGOs, housing first and commoning activists, climate justice groups as well as researchers and builders have to be fostered in order to create powerful antagonists to the ‘housing market’ and their main actors. SOLARBLOCK tries to create a platform for these different disciplines to develop a ‘real utopian’ fabulation, which is accessible and open to all affected parties, focussing on the bottom-up character of an open source community, that enables unheard voices to put pressure on those in power. The goal of shifting the focus from demolishing and building new towards repair&care necessarily involves new actors such as caretakers and inhabitants, not taking these practices as granted, but revaluing them as a crucial part for the future of social housing ensembles. This requires an active shift of mindsets from politicians and authorities as well as involved companies and inhabitants. Cities such as Barcelona prove that contemporary participatory policies are possible to be implemented successfully and the concept of SOLARBLOCK tries to contribute to this inclusive and transdisciplinary approach that is manifesting in many cities across Europe.
The mainstream approach towards social housing is still focused around building new while taking the minimum maintenance measures for existing social housing blocks. This is also reflected in the public image and the medial representation of these ensembles from the 50s and 60s, they do not exist in the public perception. Though many research projects have been conducted on existing housing blocks, the focus was mostly on construction defects and the outcome was mostly a minimal improvement through thermal insulation or adding 2-3 new stories.
Here SOLARBLOCK tries to raise architectural and public awareness to foreground the importance for affordable housing while critically assessing their heritage and future potential. Avoiding demolition and toxic insulation material are two central contributions to a more sustainable future. Additionally transforming the blocks into SOLARBLOCKS creates more living area than before, while keeping living costs low. This is in parts achieved through using wood instead of high emission materials (concrete, steel, plastics), considering not only construction costs, but also environmental costs and potential for disassembly. In other words, SOLARBLOCK attempts a radical shift towards a new architectural culture, based on circularity and low tech energy production / consumption, simplifying construction and using less and more sustainable materials. All this aims at providing more space and better living conditions for those who need it most.
The basic assumption behind the SOLARBLOCK concept that resulted from preliminary research was, that Europe has to find good solutions for the enormous stock of post war social housing blocks that reach a critical age. Though the project uses case studies in Vienna, its aim is to be as open and adaptable as possible for other European settings. On the one hand this is fostered through sharing all materials and tools (3D models, data, etc.) as fully open source materials for collective appropriation. On the other hand the construction systems of social housing blocks were based on industrialised construction methods (i.e. camus system) and SOLARBLOCK system adapts to these slightly varying constructions. This is not to result in the often bemoaned uniformity of the existing blocks, but takes precisely the standardised character as a potential for improved quality and diversity.
SOLARBLOCK departed from a critical assessment of the current approach towards social housing in Vienna. Even Vienna as one of the richest and safest and most liveable cities in Europe has great challenges ahead that are comparable with many urban areas in cities. Rising housing and energy costs, decreasing social housing construction due to pressure from the private sector as well as increasing numbers of evictions and homelessness are only a few of the urgent global challenges that this project is trying to address. A revaluation of affordable housing can be a powerful tool for wealth distribution and social mobility, two major global challenges. This can only be achieved by increased and radical democratic participation of marginalised groups and stakeholders, another key aspect of this project. By avoiding demolition and developing novel wooden construction methods based on current research and returning to simple low tech solar energy use, SUPERBLOCK tackles the climatic impact of construction industry on various layers.
