Michael Obrist [feld72] in conversation with Constanze Wolfgring & Francesca Serrazanetti  about “Unconventional Affordable Housing! Unpacking the idea of dwelling in design & policy".

Our ways of living are changing, but much of the housing we provide still responds to conventional household models, while affordability is becoming an increasingly pressing challenge. Against this backdrop, the research project UAH! – Unconventional Affordable Housing at Politecnico di Milano has explored how alternative housing practices, projects and policies can contribute to more affordable and diverse forms of housing, with particular attention to the spatial organisation of privacy and collectiveness. Design explorations within the existing built stock opened up a further line of inquiry: how can vacant buildings accommodate such new and affordable forms of housing? Building on this work, Francesca Serrazanetti and Constanze Wolfgring currently investigate adaptive reuse projects in four European cities, examining their architectural potential alongside the policy, regulatory and financial factors that enable or hinder their realisation. The conversation explores how rethinking dwelling and rethinking the existing can go hand in hand.

Francesca Serrazanetti
Francesca Serrazanetti, PhD in architecture, is Assistant Professor in Architecture of Interior at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU), Politecnico di Milano. Her research interests focus on the relation between architecture and people, the temporalities of space between permanence and reuse, and the unconventional and performative dimensions of space. She is an editor of the architecture magazine Casabella and a co-founder of the multidisciplinary magazine and cultural association Stratagemmi Prospettive Teatrali.

Constanze Wolfgring
Constanze Wolfgring, PhD, is an urban planner and historian, and a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU), Politecnico di Milano. She completed her PhD in Urban Planning, Design, and Policy in 2024 with a dissertation on the regeneration of public housing in Italy. Her research focuses on housing policy, urban regeneration, ecological transition, and social inequalities, with particular attention to affordable and innovative housing models. She previously worked at TU Wien within IBA_Vienna 2022 and is co-editor of New Social Housing (Jovis, 2020) and Unconventional Affordable Housing (2025).