Modelling Social Housing : Exploring the Interplay of Social Life and Built Environments on European Social Housing Estates

Modelling Social Housing delves into the intricate relationship between everyday social life and the architectural landscapes of social housing across European cities.

Focusing on social housing across multiple temporal and socio-cultural European urban settings, this book traces how the confluence of distributed knowledges, technological resources, and architectural histories may have considerable effects across different scales, ranging from everyday interactions to welfare planning and economic policies. To capture these intricate socio-spatial relations, this book introduces the concept of ‘social urban modelling’ as a novel analytical approach to social housing research. Spanning historical trajectories, contemporary challenges, and future potentials, this book brings together scholars from diverse fields including architecture, history, anthropology, sociology, geography, and art history. Through examinations of architectural designs, urban planning assemblages, contemporary redevelopment projects, and everyday appropriations by residents, this book unveils the intricate layers of social housing dynamics in European cities. From the adoption of Mediterranean and Islamic architectural typologies in mid-twentieth century Denmark to the innovative bureaucratic structures of the London County Council in post-war Britain, each chapter provides new insights into the spatial and social transformations of European social housing. Through empirical cases from across Europe, we ask: How might resident-driven initiatives reshape urban landscapes? What are the implications of densification processes on social housing estates? And how do private investors influence the social fabric of these communities?

With its timely interdisciplinary exploration of the modelling capacities of social housing estates, this book will provide an indispensable resource for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers engaged in housing studies, urban development, and architectural history.

Mikkel Høghøj is a cultural historian specialized in modern and contemporary Nordic urban, planning, and welfare history. His research deals widely with the urban and environmental history of the Danish welfare society. He is a researcher and curator in the Danish Museum of Science and Technology and holds a PhD in urban history from Aarhus University.

Mette My Madsen is a postdoctoral researcher and PI at the Research Centre for Social Urban Modelling at the National Museum of Denmark specialized in the cross‑field between urban planning and social coherence in the region of Denmark/North. Her research includes formal and informal social organization, welfare‑governing, insurgent infrastructure and circular economy. She holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of Copenhagen.

Anne Corlin is Assistant Professor at the Aarhus School of Architecture, where she teaches Urban design in the master's programme Desirable Densities. Her research revolves around socially sustainable urban design and how to design neighbourhoods for community building, focusing on both the design processes and the spatial and physical design.

Morten Nielsen is a social anthropologist working on socially sustainable urban development. Since November 2018, he has been based at the National Museum of Denmark as Research Professor and Head of the Research Center for Social Urban Modelling (SUMO).