Sara Brolund Fernandes De Carvalho

Recent research project

The Political City with Meike Schalk and Helena Mattsson (SRE: Architecture in the Making (Formas), Architekturzentrum Wien, ARQ Foundation), 2017-2019

The research project explored common rooms for tenants in subsidized housing (Genossenschaften), at the development area Nordbahnhof in Vienna. Through fieldstudies, in collaboration with planner Beatrice Stude and together with residents and interviews with non-profit housing developers and district managers, 10 housing projects were examined. Common rooms were regarded through the lens of shifting policies, regulations and laws, and acts or ’rituals’ of care. The project was developed together with Architekturzentrum Wien – Az W in the international workshopCare + Repair, at Workspace Nordbahnhalle, for the Vienna Biennial (2017). The study led to the publicationCaring for Communities / Für Gemeinschaften sorgen (2019) and evolved in the Forum theatre eventTheatre of Care and Repair, September 2019, produced for the exhibitionArchitecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet, at Az W (2019). It discusses the shifts in welfare housing through a comparison between the current Vienna subsidized housing model and the dismantled Swedish Allmännyttan (2011). It raises awareness of the values of social sustainability in welfare housing.