Homelessness and Architecture: Examples of European Solutions

Homelessness is currently a highly urgent, worldwide social problem. Globally, there are around 100 million people without homes and 1.6 billion people living in unsuitable housing conditions. And these numbers are continually rising. The pandemic, migration, and the climate crisis have and will continue to have a negative influence on the rising number of the unhoused. In addition to economic and social measures, a notably significant factor is the environment in which the socially marginalized live. An important component of any interdisciplinary team, therefore, must include architects.

What is the situation in the Czech Republic and in European cities? And what role do architects have in improving the situation? What innovative approaches can be used to integrate people with experience of homelessness back into society? This lecture by Karolina Kripnerova, Ph.D. will include a screening of three short films about selected projects from the Architecture of Coexistence series (by Architects without Borders, Czechia and artyčok.TV): Bedřiška, Ostrava (Czechia), VinziRast-mittendrin, Vienna (Austria), and Bellevue di Monaco, Munich (Germany).

Karolína Kripnerová, Ph.D. is an architect interested in the social overlaps of architecture. She lectures, writes articles, and moderates discussions on topics such as public space, homelessness, and affordable housing. She is co-founder of the nonprofit Architects without Borders, Czechia. She teaches at the Faculty of Architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague and works in the Kazimour Kripnerová architekti studio. Thanks to a Fulbright scholarship, she continues her research in New York in cooperation with the nonprofit Community Solutions.