The research will run from November 1, 2022, to October 31, 2023, and will be led by an interdisciplinary team from the fields of architecture, urban planning, urban research, and visual communication. During the funding period, five interdisciplinary staff members of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, one postdoctoral fellow, one alumnus, and two Master's students collaborate. In addition to the collective overall project they are also organized in various sub-projects.
The sub-project 01 Wohnwünsche und ihre Erfüllung zwischen Gemeinschaftsprojekt und Eigenheim (Johanna Günzel & Kassandra Löffler) aims to gain insights into ideal housing conceptions, moving beyond individual and economic motives. It will comparatively analyse the influences on housing decisions in different community projects and owner-occupied homes.
The sub-project 02 Eigentum schaffen und gebrauchen (Michael Schwind & Elodie Vittu) focuses on how the social relationship between owners and tenants is structured and how owners perceive, maintain, and care for their homes, based on regional case studies.
The sub-project 03 Krise als Chance oder Weiterentwerfen des Eigenheims: Von der Empirie zu baulich-räumlichen Transformation (Julia von Mende & Hanna Maria Schlösser) is based on a research-driven teaching format on single-family homes, including an empirical study with students.
In workshops and sessions with historian and oral history expert Agnès Arp, methodological skills were deepened, and approaches to the research questions were discussed.
Elodie Vittu has taken on the role of team lead, overseeing the substantive, organizational, and financial coordination of the research workshop.
In collaboration with all participants, a visual concept was developed (Enno Pötschke) and applied across various media (website, building sign, printed matter). The team also discussed scientific communication and planned this digital research work.
An editorial team (Enno Pötschke, Marie Weber & Selina Klaus) designed the content structure and conceptual implementation of the research results on the website. They also coordinated the team during the creation of the digital research work. The website was programmed by Moritz Ebeling.
The photo editors (Hanna Maria Schlösser & Enno Pötschke), in dialogue with other researchers, worked with photographer Mirka Pflüger to create a series of pictures, as well as illustrative contributions for the sub-projects with Moriz Oberberger and Marijpol, and the students of the seminar Half Measures. Florian Marenbach carried out the photographic documentation.
Joseph Kwasnik supported us with the correction of the English texts.
The interdisciplinarity of the Forschungswerkstatt facilitated the sharing of skills and knowledge, the development of design concepts for communicating results, and the collective process of research work.
"Since the beginning of the work in the Forschungswerkstatt, a pile of white unlined paper in Din-A format has been lying on my table. […] The thoughts of my work are almost exclusively condensed in drawings, plans and models. With research came text as a tool in my personal repertoire."
"Following the interest of my colleagues, I got to know and appreciate the interview method more closely in the year of the research workshop."
"My view of architecture has broadened several times through the project. In addition to the exchange with colleagues, the residents interviewed have contributed to this, and their knowledge of experience has taken on a strong form through an evaluation of the interviews."
"In this context, interviewing residents not only proved to be an essential key to understanding housing practices and their spatial contexts, but also had a surprisingly unifying effect within the research group."
"I found the process particularly insightful, which resulted in two very different products: on the one hand, a 1:1 object with the building sign, and on the other hand, a digital publication with the joint website."
"The website represents the result of the research workshop. […] Interactivity is created through links to the bibliography and glossary. The illustrations and the texts work together. This form of publication […] creates - in our opinion - a new readership."
"Everyone has a connection to the topic of single-family homes. Some dream of it, others want to ban it, others have no clear position but are confronted with it […]. We can use these points of contact in science if we make our work accessible to everyone."
"I find the exchange about […] what opportunities science communication offers enriching and indispensable for my further work on the topic of single-family houses."
"I got to know new technical terms, constantly asked questions in order to avoid misunderstandings; I was enthusiastic and also sometimes very critical. I felt heard, but at the same time inspired by other perspectives and ways of doing things."
"The close collaboration with designers, the openness of the format and the collegial atmosphere in the research project Krise und Transformation des Eigenheims opened up an ideal framework for me to explore steps from empirical research to transformation of the stock and design."
"I understood the Forschungswerkstatt as a collective attempt in which existing knowledge is not deepened, but rather we acquire new knowledge in a joint process."
"By bringing together […] disciplines in the research project, completely new forms of knowledge acquisition have also emerged."
"In the past, I have had respect for decisions involving many voices and opinions. A process pejoratively called design by committee. It has been my experience that this is exactly what can and must be done with a unified vision."
"We can no longer live and dwell as our parents (-generation) did for environmental, economic and social reasons. What the alternative looks like, we as urban planners should know; but for this, at least one research workshop is necessary to accompany a housing transformation of a whole generation."
"So I was impressed by how many student theses are now dealing with the topic."
"I would like to thank you for the trust and the opportunity you have given me and I hope that our results will fall into the hands of the decision makers and that more awareness will be raised about the topic.”
