Steinmann on Housing

Abstract

For Martin Steinmann, housing was of less interest as such than because it represented an architecture for the city. For better or for worse, it is the material from which the city is made. On account of its typified and standardised nature, housing is best suited to represent the human condition of the urban dweller in the industrial age. In Steinmann’s own words: “That's what's so exciting about housing, and that's why I loved teaching it: Here, the phenomenon of type appears in all clarity. (Housing shows) how design thinking works, namely, as the adaptation of patterns to specific situations.” This short presentation focused on Steinmann’s thinking on housing as it comes across in his published writings to date.