Course info

Course Contents
[b]Now and Then. The Social Housing Retrofit Studio
Ernst May Prize 2025[/b]

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 early September.

Language of instruction: English

First Meeting:
Wednesday, 23.4.2025, 9:00-17:00, L3|01, FG EUW

Field Trip:
Monday, 5.5.2025 - Saturday, 10.5.2025 in the Frankfurt Area