WohnWissen
WohnWissen: 100 Begriffe des Wohnens is dedicated to one of the most multi-layered conversations of our time: the question of land and housing. Short, incisive texts by numerous experts explain key concepts related to the concept of housing. From basic terms such as single-family home, vacancy, and loneliness to specialist terminology such as the brownfield dilemma and new concepts of “non-profit housing”, this interdisciplinary glossary addresses discourses within the field, political debates, and different housing needs, considering topics that have thus far received little attention in the process. In this way, WohnWissen offers a multi-faceted overview of the topic of housing as a basic need.
Dr Carolin Genz is a specialist in urban anthropology and human geography. Researching at institutions including the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the University of Toronto, and the Georg-Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies, her work focuses on urban transformation processes and socio-spatial practices in the fields of housing, protest, gender, and age. Most recently, she has been working as part of the Collaborative Research Center 1265 –“Re-Figuration of Spaces“ at Technische Universität Berlin. She has been senior scientist and coordinator of the research cluster “Wohnen in der Stadtentwicklung“ (Housing in Urban Development) at the vhw – Bundesverband für Wohnen und Stadtentwicklung e.V. since October 2022.
Dr Olaf Schnur leads the research area at the vhw – Bundesverband für Wohnen und Stadtentwicklung e.V. in Berlin. He has worked at the research institute empirica, held professorships in human and urban geography in Berlin, Potsdam, and Tübingen, been a visiting researcher at FHNW in Basel and is now a private lecturer at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin as well as spokesperson for the Arbeitskreis Quartierforschung (Working Group on Neighborhood Research) at the DGfG (German Society for Geography). His research focuses on neighborhood, district, and social urban development.
Professor Dr Jürgen Aring is the first director of the vhw – Bundesverband für Wohnen und Stadtentwicklung e.V. In 2005, he became professor of city and regional planning at Kassel University, as well as spending a semester at ETH Zürich and taking on an acting professorship at TU Dortmund. Prior to joining the vhw in 2014, Aring’s research focused on property markets for homes and offices, as well as on the regional planning and development of cities and their surroundings. He worked at the research institute empirica for many years before founding his own geotechnical services company, the Büro für angewandte Geographie (BfAG).
The Berlin-based vhw – Bundesverband für Wohnen und Stadtentwicklung e.V. is a not-for-profit knowledge actor on key future-focused topics relating to cities and municipalities. In its role as an education and research institution, the vhw sees itself as a catalyst that provides a forum for current debates, curates information on expert topics, and creates spaces for discussion. With its research, the vhw aims to strengthen the agency of actors in community, housing, and civil society contexts through practical research, practical projects, foundational research, and knowledge sharing, thereby making a transformative contribution to sustainable urban and neighborhood development.