The quest for better housing - Individual reconstruction and Situational Analysis of participatory housing in the framework of Modell Steiermark, Austria

This study offers insight into a crucial period of the provision of housing in Austria. Modell Steiermark was a set of public policies that highly valued the importance of architecture and spatial-planning and led to the creation of subsidized housing projects that integrated the future inhabitants in the process of planning and use. This study is committed to two research interests, on one hand it aims to shed light on this period and its accompanying discourses as a whole, on the other hand it investigates the motivational background of the involved architects. The methodical framework of Situational Analysis (Clarke, 2005) based on Grounded Theory Methodology (Glaser, Strauss 1967) is used to delve into the first aspect, to understand the framework, the surrounding parameters, to depict the actors and actants and to discuss the major and minor discourses that are entangled in the situation. This part of the study is based on historical sources. The second aspect, the individual motivational background of the involved architects, is investigated using the methodical framework of biographical research based on narrative interviews (Schütze 1976, Rosenthal 2004). Documentary Method (Bohnsack 2003, Bohnsack et. al., 2010) provides the framework to analyse these narrative interviews. It empirically extracts the orientation framework that formed the basis for actions of these architects. This study enriches the repertoire of methods and puts to test two “non-canonical” approaches that, while being highly regarded in the scientific disciplines where they have been conceived, are not commonly used in architectural sciences.