TEMA# 7 – Housing
What’s up with housing?
I own, you lodge, it dwells and we reside – How do people in Europe live and how do they reside? Do they own their own home, live in a dormitory or are they homeless? While some can’t imagine something better than having their own four walls, for others having a solid place of living is unimaginable, for some not even desirable. According to the European Social Charter, "adequate housing" is a human right. But what does adequate mean? Are refugee camps on the routes and borders of Europe “adequate”? Or is it adequate to invest over 50% of one's income for housing? Housing in Europe's capitals is de facto already unaffordable for many. Has private space become a luxury by now? How will we survive if housing becomes a stroke of luck and can we justify that societies divide into rich and poor, privileged and forgotten, resident and homeless? Our apartments may be private, our housing is highly political for sure.
Senior & queer: Where do you live?
Many queer people feel lonely as they age. What can be done about it, and how does the experience of ageing in our society differ between queer and heterosexual people? Christian Wapp, vice president of the Swiss association "queerAltern" tackles these problems and tells us the story of a struggle that is unknown to many.
The luxury homeownership content paradigm
With a sense of escapism, we click ourselves through an endless stream of luxury homeownership content on social media. But why do we immerse ourselves in this sort of content that is, for most of us, far removed from the attainable reality?
Unwelcome neighbour?
What makes a good neighbour and how does the ‘label’ we carry influence how we are perceived as such? The sad truth Diyan Duke keeps coming across, at least in Germany, is the belief a migrant or refugee does not fit with the idea of a good neighbour. This problematic idea is also reflected in structural problems in the housing market. In his article, he looks for solutions on how to break out of these prejudiced thought patterns but also on a more socio-political level.
"What kind of city do we want?"
The phenomenon of the financialization of housing has been shaping life in European cities: investment funds and banks are now buying up entire neighbourhoods and encouraging speculative investments. In Lisbon, a collective for the right to housing praises the right to the city for those who make it, denounces evictions and explains the importance of people continuing to come to the streets to claim their rights. TEMA spoke with Sara Fernandes, an activist that works with Habita.
Er holt mich schon nicht ein
What happens when the solid ground beneath your feet begins to crumble and something you take for granted, like your own home, loses that same self-evidence? From one day to the next, the Hamburg-based photographer and student Yana Kyrychenko lost her job and, along with it, her own four walls. She processes these existential experiences in this photo series.
Welcome to my smart crib
Are we ever more intimate than when we step inside our front door? Protecting us from the hustle of modern life, the four walls of a home provide us with the space to drop our guard and let loose our most vulnerable selves. But what happens when the walls have ears?
To each their own roof
Homelessness numbers in Europe are rising. Amidst a host of different crises, the housing first concept has been hailed by many as the saving grace. But can it change a basic conception deeply woven into the very fabric of our society?
Letters from Nahariya
The Nahariya Kiez, located on the outskirts of Berlin, was built in the 70s by a Protestant parish. In the early 00s, the parish had to sell the estate to investors, after which the administration changed several times. Photographer Marvin Systermans captures what happens when Responsibilities are shifted back and forth: social tensions, broken lifts and rubbish in the stairwells.
Creativewashing - A new currency?
Artist and author Malin Annie Jansson is part of an art collective. Together they inhabit a neighbourhood which was once enlivened and inhabited by many creative, like-minded people. Today, they are the only one’s left but the area is promoted as “New York-inspired architecture, designed for offices, studios, and workshops.” Do art collectives only value as marketing strategies nowadays and is “Creativewashing” a thing in the housing market?
Remainder
Mahshid Mahboubifar lived on the 3rd floor of an empty apartment building in Tehran. From her window she looked out onto another building with curtained windows. The only signs of life were wet clothes that someone was hanging out to dry. She started to imagine the person behind the clothes and recreated her imagination visually.
Latin Americans in Spain
Barcelona based journalist Daniel Harper spoke with several Latin Americans in the city about why they migrated, how their past and current housing situation has changed, and what it says about their progress within Europe.
A house is more than a bed – Homeless shelters in Italy
Homeless shelters in Turin, Italy, do only have room for every fourth homeless person in the city. But is simply providing a bed enough at all?
Living in plain sight and other exploits
In a poetic, yet bluntly realistic essay, imbued with personal and some collective experiences and facts, hn. Iyonga addresses the issues of 'Housing' from the perspective of a Black Queer person who lives with the reality of racism in the housing market of Berlin.
Illegal Streets
A few months before the Pandemic hit, photographer Ilir Tsouko went to Budapest, Hungary’s capital, and documented the lives of homeless people.
Insider trading
If we allowed bank bosses to write banking laws, there would be an outcry. Why is the same not true for homeowners making rules about housing? Young people cannot afford homes, but legislators, who seldom share this position, seem deaf to the crisis. It seems possible that these two facts are linked. How did adequate housing end up being a luxury?
Burning down the house
A not so inspirational story about living with the prospect of eviction. – For four years, Tecla and her family lived in constant fear of being evicted from their apartment in Milan. Unstable income and an addiction made it impossible to further pay for rent and to find a suitable new place. Tecla shares her experience of these traumatizing years and the, somewhat more positive, lesson she draws out of them.
Share in despair: Communal living in Zurich
As in many European cities, rents and scarce living space push people into shared housing. What used to be illegal in Switzerland is now its capital's most popular housing model.
A shadow in the shape of a house
Designer and artist Lena Holzer spent three weeks in isolation living in an uninhabited house opposite from her childhood home. The resulting work A shadow in the shape of a house is a combination of photographic and textual examination.
Baby, it’s cold inside
Portugal, the southern paradise of Europe: nice weather, affordable and sunny. Who could have guessed that Portugal is among the four countries in Europe where people suffer more from cold inside their own houses than outside, according to Eurostat.