The team of Subproject 2 “Integrated Action Approach” at RWTH Aachen University is organising Session 10 at CATference 2025: “Ambivalent Legacy or Resilient Asset? Governing Socialist-Era Housing in Shrinking Cities.”
Chairs: Elena Batunova & Albina Davletshina,
RWTH Aachen University, Chair of Urban Design and Institute for Urban Design and European Urbanism
Socialist-era residential areas shape urban landscapes of many countries, housing sizeable portions of the population. However, many of these neighbourhoods face the pressures of urban shrinkage—depopulation, economic decline, and reduced public services—making it difficult to sustain, adapt, and reimagine such areas as part of a resilient and sustainable urban future. These estates evoke ambivalent perceptions. Although often criticized for their ideological past, obsoleteness, material decay, or visual monotony, they are valued by the residents for their functionality, greenery, and personal memories. In the context of ongoing crises—climate change, wars, and demographic decline—they continue to function as key elements of urban infrastructure.
This session explores how socialist residential areas are being reevaluated through the lenses of resilience and sustainability. It focuses on how local administrations, housing managers, planners and residents navigate the tensions between decline and maintenance, preservation and adaptation. What governance strategies are emerging in shrinking cities with limited resources? How do memory, identity, and local agency shape new understandings of value? And how does shrinkage reshape existing frameworks for resilience and sustainability planning?
We invite interdisciplinary contributions rooted in the post-socialist context—ranging from case studies and governance analyses to conceptual and historical reflections. The session aims to deepen dialogue on how ambivalent housing legacies can inform resilient, forward-looking urban strategies in the face of decline.
Abstract submission and further details: https://cat2025tirana.com/call-for-papers/
Submission deadline: 15 June, 2025