The housing question is deeply linked to social, political, economic, psychological and design understandings and norms of how society should be organised. If the traditional family today seems to be an increasingly outdated model, its materialisation in floor plans and urban planning remains locked in the idea of the single-family house that spreads into urban flats.

In the course of the academic year 2018/19, Urban Design students and staff will be concerned with the family and its materialisation in floor plans and property relations, with lived spatial practices and household everyday life, with the always gendered production of space and the representation of social order in the built environment. We will engage with data and preconceptions, urban and rural differences, feminism and politics, ideologies and demographics, unpacking relationalities and tendencies in order to shed light on an issue that concerns literally every body.

The kick-off colloquium on 18th October, 2-4pm, serves as an introductory discussion forum. Our guests, Patricia Frericks and Colin Ripley, will give insights into the two complexes 'family and social policy' and 'single-family home architecture' that the ensuing discussion seeks to bring into conversation.

Patricia Frericks is professor for Sociology and the Economy of Social Services and Facilities at Kassel University. Her research focuses on welfare states and capitalism, social inequalities and the transformation of institutions.

Colin Ripley is an architect and professor in the Department of Architectural Science at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. His work focuses on design research, architectural theory, architecture and national identity and, most interestingly perhaps in this context, queer architectures.