Vienna: The End of Housing (as a Typology)

Housing—Vienna—Red Vienna. This triad, as unavoidable as it is redundant, is the knee-jerk injunction in architectural discourse whenever there is another desperate search for successful housing policy models. This reflexive response testifies to both the scarcity of such exemplary cases and the enduring power of the myth of Red Vienna. Nevertheless, the success of its housing model is not simply a myth: Above all, it is grounded in an astonishing continuity of municipal politics, which recognizes that housing is a societal responsibility that should not be solely entrusted to the market.

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