Handbook

International Study Tour is a course on Social and Affordable Housing in Vienna that takes place at the Technical University of Vienna where UNSW students collaborate with local students and practitioners.

Affordable housing is a basic requirement and an essential ingredient of a just, inclusive and sustainable city. With the low housing affordability in Sydney, it is of paramount importance that the students of architecture, interior architecture, construction, planning and landscape architecture are introduced to models of affordable housing that are accessible to the majority of the city’s population. The Social and Affordable Housing in Vienna course takes the students to the city of Vienna where more than 60% of the city’s population lives in some form of subsidised apartments. The Viennese model of affordable housing is built on a diverse definition of social and affordable housing that includes city-owned flats and limited profit housing co-operatives.

Site visits help you negotiate different modes of representation and relate historic context to contemporary urban conditions of the host city. You will engage in research of the host city through a textual analysis of recommended texts. Your visual diaries will include diagrams and drawings of selected projects that, in turn, will be interpreted on site.