At the end of 19 th century, the removal of city walls and introduction of mass transport in European cities provided the opportunity to expand cities in green suburban areas. Colonies of small houses with garden plots and allotment gardens developed during this era thus represent a new type of settlement, where green infrastructure (gardens) and allotment dwellings are closely intertwined. The gardens in these settlements were originally based on the notion of subsistence economy, providing food and emergency accommodation in periods of crisis. This paper examines the evolution of allotments and particularly allotment dwellings in Germany and Austria by matching the actual practices of gardeners with the formation of and changes in the legal framework. The legislation and zoning regulations, which were predominantly established after the fact, reveal an ongoing process of negotiation between informal practices and planning authorities.

In the 20th century, detached single-family houses proliferated in Germany. Continued publication of built houses as idealised, model homes in magazines for non-professional housebuilders contributed to the popularity of detached single-family housing, influenced the architecture of single-family homes, and contributed to shaping the culture of habitation. Through their customer magazines, aimed at non-professional housebuilders, German building societies played a crucial role in the constitution of self-provided detached housing. With a focus on the Kleinhaus (small house), this paper uses mediated representations of built houses to trace the evolution of single-family houses in Germany from the 1920s to the 1960s, as they were represented in Mein Eigenheim, a customer magazine of the Wüstenrot-Gesellschaft der Freunde (GdF) building society. During the Weimar era (1919-1933), the GdF magazine highlighted the affordability and modest size of the Kleinhaus. Following the financial crisis of the late 1920s and the rise of Nazism, the economy of self-sufficiency, centred on vegetable gardens, became a popular theme. During the 1950s, under the influence of increasing material progress, the significance of the Kleinhaus changed. The gardens lost their economic function and became extended living spaces. In the late 1950s, the Kleinhaus lost its dominant position on the housing market, with the emergence of new building types such as the bungalow and larger homes with two full storeys, which better catered to the desires of an affluent and increasingly individualised society.

For some years, increased attention has been paid to the single-family housing stock in Germany and the further designation of building land by municipalities. A Germany-wide anonymous survey of municipalities sheds light on the municipalities’ land management strategies with regard to declining populations and their anticipation of future problems for the further use of the single-family housing stock. The results of the quantitative survey are supplemented by qualitative interviews with municipal experts from case studies that were selected on the basis of criteria such as population decline, old-age dependency ratio, the share of single-family homes and vacancy rates. The aims of the survey and the interviews are to assess municipal representatives’ perceptions of population decline and of the necessity of undertaking measures to deal with shrinkage. Research questions are: What measures do municipalities consider appropriate to counter population loss and falling demand for housing in shrinking regions? How important are single-family housing areas in the perception of German municipalities? The results indicate that a continued designation of building land seems to be one of the most important measures used to cope with insufficient demand. The aim is to attract new inhabitants, particularly to shrinking cities. However, this approach reinforces current problems because it lowers demand for the housing stock and increases the risk of vacancies.

Unterrichtspraktiken und soziale Beziehungen in den Schulen werden nicht zuletzt durch die vorherrschenden Gebäudestrukturen geprägt. Das stabile sozio-technische Regime der Schule, das auf dem Prinzip des Klassenzimmers und dem System Lehrer-Klasse beruht, kann nur langfristig und mithilfe einer Gesamtstrategie verändert werden. Dieser Aspekt ist besonders relevant, wenn es um die Modernisierung historischer Schulgebäude geht. Doch wie kann eine Modernisierung geplant werden, die Fehlentwicklungen vermeidet und langfristig tragfähige Strategien ermöglicht? Maja Lorbek stellt die Szenario-Entwicklung als Planungsinstrument zur Schulmodernisierung vor. Anhand einiger Szenarien - wie etwa dem des »Kontrollierten Schulmarkts«, welches ein Schulsystem ohne staatliches Bildungsmonopol beschreibt, oder dem der »Differenzierten Schule« als Darstellung der Folgen bisheriger Praxis - wird die Tragfähigkeit des Instruments diskutiert.

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