Telheiras Sul (1974) exemplifies the Portuguese state’s response to Lisbon’s 1960s housing crisis, reflecting emer-ging concerns with identity and environmentalism. Rooted in a former garden city and integrating an old village core, the plan addressed hygiene, ecological, and social needs. Unlike Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin, it balanced standardized housing with existing urban fabric. This paper explores how to conserve and adapt the area while ensuring quality of life, recognizing housing as a broader urban experience. It argues that strong local identity and community resilience stem from aligning architecture, urban policy, and resident participation. Telheiras Sul’s inclusion in Lisbon’s Heritage Protection Charter confirms its significance and helps preserve its character, reinforcing community belonging.

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In the 1950s, the City of Vienna ventured an experiment in social housing, building one- and two-storey apartment blocks for elderly residents in more than thirty municipal housing estates—an innovative response to the post-war housing crisis and an ageing society. These Alte-Leute-Siedlungen enabled barrier-free, selfdetermined living within the social fabric of the Gemeindebau (municipal housing), supported by open spaces that fostered social interaction and neighbourly care. Once seen as a model internationally, these settlements are now largely forgotten. Many no longer serve their original purpose, and only a few are protected as heritage. Yet their core idea—age-appropriate housing embedded in supportive urban communities—remains highly relevant. This article calls for renewed recognition of these settlements as a vital part of post-war social housing history and argues that the lessons they offer are essential for addressing today’s and tomorrow’s housing challenges.

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Ştei, a town in western Romania built in the 1950s near a uranium mine, is a rare example of well-preserved Soviet-style urbanism and Socialist Realist housing. The construction materials and techniques employed, such as timber panelling, indicate an initially temporary settlement that subsequently evolved into a permanent town. Today, Ştei’s built environment serves as a key historical source, as archival records are scarce. Despite changes following housing privatization in the 1990s, many buildings remain intact, and local terms like BW and DK still reflect the site's Cold War legacy. While the municipality seeks heritage recognition through networks like ATRIUM, Romanian law offers little protection for residential heritage. This article explores how institutions and residents perceive transformation and care and asks how heritage policies can balance expert frameworks with local interests to support inclusive preservation of Cold War housing heritage.

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This article explores the modernist residential complex of Aspra Spitia in Paralia Distomou, Greece, designed in the 1950s by Constantinos Doxiadis for the Pechiney aluminium company. It investigates how the settlement reflects and challenges modernist planning principles through phases of development—from its origins and forced expropriations to its vertical expansion, suburban growth, and recent transformation into a “smart city”. Combining architectural analysis with resident interviews, the study examines tensions between modernity, class stratification, and heritage preservation. Aspra Spitia emerges as both a legacy of industrial modernism and a living site of spatial, social, and technological negotiation.

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This article explores the concept of “mindscape” as a driver for heritage regeneration, addressing the growing mental health crisis exacerbated by urban isolation and environmental disconnection. Drawing on the Council of Europe conventions on “Landscape” (Florence, 2000) and the “Value of Cultural Heritage” (Faro, 2005), the research investigates how cultural and natural heritage can foster emotionally healthy and resilient urban districts. Focusing on Vigne Nuove, a 1970s public housing complex in Rome, the study employs the mindscape framework to analyze immaterial layers of heritage, integrating emotional, affective, and perceptual dimensions into urban transformation processes. By operationalizing mindscapes, the research aims to better understand heritage sites in their multiple dimensions, as well as to mitigate urban challenges, redefine spatial production, and create new urban commons, ultimately contributing to a topography of collective wellbeing and adaptive urban futures.

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Important residential buildings and estates from the early 20th century are recognized as housing heritage. Five (former) workers’ housing estates in Austria (Eysnfeld, Steyr; Knappensiedlung, Hüttenberg) and Germany (Fritz-Schumacher-Siedlung, Hamburg; Ernst-Thälmann-Park Siedlung, Berlin; Piesteritz in Lutherstadt Wittenberg) together illustrate a complex field of conservation, adaptation, and participation regarding the management of change. The article argues for a sincere need for negotiation between different actors such as residents, owners, heritage authorities, and urban development authorities. Within this complex constellation of actors, we must weigh up heritage values and conservation practices, possible and necessary changes, as well as private, com-munal, and public interests. Thus, conservation and adaptation require broad participation if heritage protection is to exist not only on paper but in practice.

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Following the Second World War, rapid and economical housing production emerged as a key challenge for Is-tanbul’s growing population. In the 1950s, municipal efforts resulted in the construction of affordable housing in Koşuyolu and Selamsız, two neighboring districts. Built with similar aims and designs, these settlements shared common features in their plan layouts, building sizes, and massing characteristics. However, the transformation of these housing projects and their surrounding areas has followed divergent trajectories over time, shaped by distinct socio-economic dynamics. Changes in land use, demographics, and functional or commercial differentiations have altered spatial arrangements, settlement character, and building usage patterns in both districts, with Selamsız largely retaining its original character, while Koşuyolu has undergone significant transformations. This study examines these transformations, highlighting how economic and societal dynamics in both districts and their surroundings influence the preservation of 20th century modern housing heritage.

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This article examines the decline of the Red Tower and shopping centre in the Schelmengraben housing estate in Wiesbaden, Germany. Once a vibrant focal point of social and commercial life, the site has suffered from neglect, rising vacancies, and repeated ownership changes driven by speculative real estate investment. Through historical analysis and local narratives, the authors trace how urban decay, lack of accountability, and political inaction have eroded this key piece of post-war modernist infrastructure. The study raises critical questions about monument protection, urban policy, and the social consequences of private-sector urbanism.

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This study examines the practice of detaching and transferring wall paintings in Austria between 1900 and 1970, tracing its technical, institutional, and ethical dimensions in the shadow of Italian pioneers. Drawing on archival sources and case studies—from early adoptions of stacco and strappo methods to post-war collaborations with the Istituto Centrale in Rome—, it charts a shift from stylistic restoration to conservation-oriented approaches. The paper explores motivations for removal, from urgent preservation to problematic “routine” transfers, and the evolving debate over authenticity, integrity, and the loss of context. By situating Austrian practice within international discourse, it highlights both technical advances and the lasting conservation challenges posed by these interventions.

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In Prague’s St. Vitus Cathedral stands a bronze tomb of exceptional artistry depicting Ludmilla Berka (†1558) with her two sons. Since Aloys Hirt’s mention in 1830, it has been attributed to the Nuremberg Vischer workshop or an unidentified German master. Recent findings reveal the Vischer workshop ended sepulchral production by 1544, and the monument diverges stylistically from its oeuvre. Commissioned by Ludmilla’s husband Franz von Thurn—Obersthofmeister at the court of Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol—, it may plausibly be the work of an as yet unidentified Flemish sculptor from the circle of Mechelen-born Alexander Colin, active at the Habsburg court in Innsbruck from 1563. Casting likely occurred in the Löffler workshop in Innsbruck. The monument’s opulence and technical sophistication fully reflects Thurn’s high social standing and Ludmilla’s role as governess to the children of Emperor Ferdinand I.

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