The second consortium meeting of the CBC Project took place on 6–7 October 2025 at the Chair and Institute for Urban Design and European Urbanism, RWTH Aachen University. The meeting brought together project partners, members of the Advisory Board, and invited experts for two days of intensive exchange and discussion on current research and future directions.
The program began with presentations on ongoing research progress, followed by valuable feedback from Annegret Haase (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig), member of the CBC Advisory Board. The discussions then turned to methodological and conceptual challenges, focusing on how the concepts of resilience and sustainability can be applied to the study of mass housing developed during the socialist period. Which definitions/approaches are useful/should be considered? How do they apply to the post-Soviet/Eastern European context, more generally, and what are the local adaptations and uses?
In the afternoon, participants took part in a site visit to Köln-Chorweiler, the largest prefabricated mass housing district in the region. The visit also provided an opportunity to explore the architectural legacy of Gottfried Böhm, reflected in an astonishing housing complex completed between 1969-1974 in Seeberg-Nord.
The second day of the meeting was dedicated to exchanges with related research and design projects.
- Marc and Nicole Maurer (Maurer United Architects) presented Superlocal, an experimental initiative addressing the heritage and reuse of late-1960s prefabricated housing blocks in Kerkrade, Netherlands.
- Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler (Sapir Academic College and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel), who joined the meeting throughout, reflected on changing agendas of urban resilience in Israel’s southern regions.
- Vanessa Ziegler (Reicher Haase Assoziierte) introduced the new project Atlas der Großwohnsiedlungen, mapping large housing estates across Germany.
- Hannes Taubenböck (DLR) demonstrated how remote sensing and geospatial data can be used for the analysis and visualization of mass housing districts.
- Finally, Greta Baum (Reicher Haase Assoziierte) presented insights on what can be learned from Gottfried Böhm’s work in Neue Stadt Chorweiler.
The meeting concluded on a highly positive note. It not only provided valuable feedback and interdisciplinary perspectives but also raised key questions for further research. New formats for the continued discussion of these topics were proposed, ensuring that the dialogue initiated in Aachen will inform the next phases of the project.
