Programme

9:00 – 9:30 | Section 1 – Opening Session

• Jan Kasl / President of the Czech Chamber of Architects
• Carl Bäckstrand / President of the Architects’ Council of Europe
• Petr Kulhánek / Minister for Regional Development of the Czech Republic
• Andreas Schieder / Member of the European Parliament
• Jan Schneider / Director of the Strategies and Analyses of Regional and Housing Policies of the Ministry of Regional Development of the Czech Republic

• Limited-profit Housing Providers  - The situation on the housing market in the Czech Republic is very serious and requires comprehensive solutions. The Ministry of Regional Development has therefore developed and begun to implement a set of measures aimed at improving housing affordability. These measures include among others legislation to help people in housing need, a set of instruments for affordable rental housing development, and a proposal to establish limited-profit housing associations.

• Daniel Ryšávka / Director of the Czech State Investment Promotion Fund

Affordable Housing Support by State Fund for Investment Promotion - The presentation will introduce national instruments that make housing more accessible for people across the Czech Republic. Participants will learn how SFPI combines financing, advisory services, and expert support to help municipalities and public investors realize affordable housing projects. The talk will also present the activities of the regional advisory network ObecOn and the national think-tank HIAH, both focused on boosting housing investment. Finally, it will highlight spatial planning as a key challenge and explore new ways to unlock its potential for sustainable housing development.

• Dalibor Hlaváček / Representative of the European Association for Architectural Education

9:30 – 10:00 - Sabine Pollak / Architect, Curator Austrian pavilion Architecture Biennale, Venice 2025, Partner Köb&Pollak architecture / Austria - Keynote

1 kitchen, 1 house, 1 neighborhood - In the so-called Red Vienna of the interwar period, collective forms of living were intended to guarantee a better living for everyone. Radical experiments tested the extent to which private space could be minimized and collective space maximized. Today's living arrangements tend to be oriented toward individualization and maximization of private living space. New Viennese neighborhoods are now building on the experiments of the 1920s and 1930s. The question is how collective living can be today and what forms of post-privacy are conceivable.

 

10:00 – 10:30 – Coffee Break

10:30 – 11:40 | Section 2 – Housing Transformation

• Henrieta Moravčíková / Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Design at STU and the head of the Architecture Department at the Historical Institute of SAS / Slovakia

Unitas and the New Age. Experiments in Housing in 1930s Bratislava - In response to the shortage of affordable housing in the 1930s, two experiments in housing construction were successfully carried out in Bratislava. The creation of these housing complexes was significantly influenced by avant-garde architectural ideas, the local tradition of cooperatives, and urban elites sensitive to social issues. What issues were architects dealing with at the time, and could these historical examples inspire solutions to the current housing crisis?

• Michaela Janečková/Researcher, Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences / Czech Republic

Was there any "affordable housing" during the period of state socialism in Czechoslovakia? - Today, we imagine housing under socialism as living in prefabricated apartment buildings built by the state. This overlooks other forms of housing, which included cooperative and private construction. What were the strategies of the state and the population in obtaining housing?

• Irina Tulbure / Researcher / Romania

Dreams for a happy life. Mass housing in the early 1960s Romania - The 1960s were the starting point for the construction of the large mass housing estates in Romania, reifying promises for an ideal living. As theorized and imagined by the architects, public facilities were the magnetizing elements of the new neighborhoods. However, in the following years, the need for economical efficiency in centralized investment shaped the initial architectural concepts enforcing the construction of denser housing areas and minimizing the public facilities. Today, the attachment of the inhabitants of these neighborhoods especially to the public areas (especially the housing estates in the early 1960s) manifested in civic activism might be understood as a barometer indicating that a response for affordable housing is inherently tight to the existence of a good quality collective space.

• Jitka Molnárová/Lead Urban Designer, Unit Architects/Czech Republic

Regeneration Policies of Modernist Housing Estates – A Comparison between Western European Countries and the Czech Republic - The future of modernist housing estates, which make up more than a quarter of the Czech Republic’s housing stock, represents one of the country’s greatest urban challenges. This paper summarizes the results of research on regeneration policies for housing estates in France, the Netherlands, Germany, and the Czech Republic over the past 30 years. It presents the different contexts of the examined countries, the gradual development of their regeneration policies and implementation tools, including examples of successful projects.

 

11:40 – 12:40 | Lunch Break

 

12:40 – 14:00 | Section 3 – Urban and Architectural Strategies

• Susanne Sturm / Managing director of CKRS ARCHITEKTEN / Germany

3 x wood - The lecture will present three residential projects as a wooden stucture by her architectural firm CKRS Architekten. The three projects are for different user groups. The "3xG" project was initiated by a building collectiv consisting of 13 families. The project, “Wohnen im Kiez” (Living in the Neighborhood), was built for people with AIDS, and the  project "Junges Leben" (Young life) has the motto “Sharing is fun.”

• Doris Wälchli / Practicing architect and Co-director of Brauen Wälchli Architectes, President of the Swiss Conference of Architects (CSA), and Swiss delegate to the ACE and UIA / Switzerland

Versatilitas - As an extension of Vitruvius’ three principles of architecture — firmitas, utilitas, and venustas, meaning solidity, utility, and beauty — this presentation proposes a fourth: versatilitas. Flexibility is a key principle of sustainable architecture, and it is through this lens that five recent Swiss examples are examined. These projects demonstrate how existing buildings—no longer serving their original function—have been successfully converted into affordable housing.

• Karin Krokfors / Founding partner of Karin Krokfors Architects Associate Professor of Urban Design Practises, Aalto University, School of ARTS, Department of Architecture / Finland

Living House – building as a process - The Living House concept, applied to affordable housing project, renews design thinking and construction practices by establishing new ways of approaching housing design. It promotes diverse ways to utilize and maintain buildings throughout their lifespan, facilitating adaptability and flexibility that allow spaces to continually evolve in response to the changing needs of people and societies. This innovative approach enhances the resilience and regenerative aspects of the built environment by ensuring the durability of buildings, while also supporting cost-effective construction and modifications during the use of the building.

• Corinne Girard-Young / Co-chair of the ACE Urban and Housing Transformation Working Group / Elected member of the Regional Council of the Order of Architects Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (CROABFC) and representative of the National Council of the Order of Architects (CNOA) / France

European Off-Site Construction: Opportunities for Affordable, High-Quality Housing - Expanding on discussions of innovative, affordable, and high-quality housing initiatives addressing the bloc-wide housing crisis, the presentation examines the potential of off-site construction as a possible enabler of such projects. The increasing adoption of industrialised construction reflects the convergence of integrated technologies and the pursuit of efficiency within the built environment. This approach delivers demonstrable advantages, including enhanced quality and precision, reduced material waste and on-site disruption, improved feasibility for constrained urban contexts, and greater cost and timeline predictability. The presentation will draw on selected case studies to demonstrate how off-site construction can enable the delivery of high-quality, efficient, and context-responsive housing projects.

• Panel Discussion

Susanne Sturm / Managing director of CKRS ARCHITEKTEN/Germany

Doris Wälchli / Practicing architect and Co-director of Brauen Wälchli Architectes, President of the Swiss Conference of Architects (CSA), and Swiss delegate to the ACE and UIA / Switzerland

Karin Krokfors / Founding partner of Karin Krokfors Architects Associate Professor of Urban Design Practises, Aalto University, School of ARTS, Department of Architecture / Finland

Corinne Girard-Young / Co-chair of the ACE Urban and Housing Transformation Working Group / Elected member of the Regional Council of the Order of Architects Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (CROABFC) and representative of the National Council of the Order of Architects (CNOA), France

 

14:00 – 14:15 – Coffee Break

 

14:15 – 15:45 | Section 4 – Policy and Future Directions

• Lucía Caudet / Deputy Head of Unit / European Commission, Housing Task Force

The European Affordable Housing Plan - Europe faces a shared housing challenge that requires a shared response. This first-ever European Affordable Housing Plan, which the European Commission will present before the end of the year, aims to improve affordability without compromising on sustainability or quality. It will provide an analysis of the key drivers of the housing crisis, and identify areas where the EU can add value and support efforts by other public authorities and stakeholders to increase housing supply, unleash investment and reforms, and support the people and the areas that are most affected.

• Patrycja Haupt / Member of the EU Commission’s Housing Advisory Group Associate Professor at the Chair of Housing Environment, Faculty of Architecture at the Cracow University of Technology / Poland

Assuring Quality Design in Affordable Housing - This presentation will address the challenge of maintaining high design quality within the financial constraints of affordable housing. Drawing on Poland’s social and cooperative housing models (TBS, SIM), it will demonstrate how design excellence, sustainability, and social cohesion can be achieved even in cost-sensitive projects. It will also connect these experiences with European initiatives such as the Affordable Housing Initiative, the New European Bauhaus, and the Green Deal, emphasizing the need for integrated governance, effective financing tools, and architectural quality in shaping inclusive and resilient housing environments.

• Petra Korlaar / Deputy Mayor of the City of Mikulov / Czech Republic

Affordable Housing in Attractive Heritage Towns: The Mikulov Case - The presentation examines how small and historic towns like Mikulov face the same housing challenges as large cities — rising prices, limited availability, and social imbalance driven by tourism. Using Mikulov as a case study, it highlights the tension between heritage protection, urban attractiveness, and the need for economically sustainable housing.It calls for practical policy directions for municipalities: simplifying permitting, fostering partnerships with investors, and creating housing that remains both affordable and authentic to the city’s character.

• Wolfgang Amann / Managing partner in IIBW – Institute for Real Estate, Construction and Housing Ltd. / Austria

Single-family housing – a fading dream - Owning a house on one's own property has always been the dream of a large part of the population, including the post-Covid generation. Politicians can hardly ignore this preference. At the same time, single-family homes pose one of the greatest threats to sustainable urban development without urban sprawl. This presentation outlines a strategy to reconcile housing preferences with the need to reduce land consumption.

• Ruta Leitanaite / Board member of the Architects Association of Lithuania - Initiator of the NEB LAB Housing

NEB LAB Housing - Rūta Leitanaitė from the Architects Association of Lithuania will present the NEB LAB HOUSING initiative, which aims to enhance existing affordable housing initiatives and projects at EU level, and create synergies aligned with the New European Bauhaus (NEB) principles.

• João Carvalhosa / Member of Election Committee at Housing Europe, Head of Strategy and Planning Office at Gebalis, Lisboa, Portugal, Mayor of Belém Borough / Portugal

How Housing as turned out to be a European Plan -  Social housing providers, gathered in Housing Europe, for long time raise the issue of the gap between existing stock and the reality of the need of affordable homes. With the public and political awareness of this problem, finally the EU Commission and Parliament are taking the theme as a priority, drawing a first European affordable housing plan. Where should this plan be pointed to and what are the necessary tools for the social housing providers to implement it, as a pillar of the EU strategy?

• Panel Discussion and Prague Declaration

Patrycja Haupt / Member of the EU Commission’s Housing Advisory Group Associate Professor at the Chair of Housing Environment, Faculty of Architecture at the Cracow University of Technology / Poland

Petra Korlaar / Deputy Mayor of the City of Mikulov / Czech Republic

Wolfgang Amann / Managing partner in IIBW – Institute for Real Estate, Construction and Housing Ltd. / Austria

João Carvalhosa / Member of Election Committee at Housing Europe, Head of Strategy and Planning Office at Gebalis, Lisboa, Portugal, Mayor of Belém Borough / Portugal

Eugen Panescu / ACE Urban and Housing Transformation Working Group

Petr Štěpánek / Director General of the The Centre for Regional Development

 

15:45 – 16:00 | Conclusions

Jan Kasl / President of the Czech Chamber of Architects / Czech Republic

Carl Bäckstrand / President of the Architects’ Council of Europe/ Sweden

João Carvalhosa / Member of Election Committee at Housing Europe / Portugal