Dwelling as one of the fundamental acts of the individual being defines both the individual as well as society. The decision to stop movement and to stay for a while in a place entails the necessity to adapt oneself to what is around and vice versa to adapt what is around to oneself. Quite like the practice of architecture, the action of dwelling is some kind of multiplicity, it combines different planes: functional as well as symbolic ones.

After years of reduced debate, housing has re-emerged as one of the major topics of our time, not only in the field of architects and engineers, but more importantly in society. Changing demands, new lifestyles, different territorial demographic growth pattern, technological developments profoundly impact the way we dwell. Housing has once again turned at the centre of debate.

The project ‘Plattform Wohndebatte’, which was initiated by Stiftung Baukultur Thüringen in 2019, deliberately looks at Thuringia as the venue for this conversation. It is a debate that has been ongoing in different forms in different places throughout the state, in the construction and housing industry, in universities as well as municipalities, but also in society, among Thuringians, whether single, family or in other life constellations.

The aim of the project is to seek out and systematize new forms of housing in and for Thuringia, as well as to promote new ideas that can be of a social, technological or aesthetic nature. The conditions in Thuringia are the starting point for a discussion, which goes beyond the housing debates in large cities and understands the decentralized territorial condition of Thuringia and similar territories as a potential positive force.

The debate will reflect the main tendencies that have an effect on a national or global level (e.g., mobility behaviour, digitalization, interest rates, demographics), document their effects in Thuringia as well as develop a framework of guidelines for future developments. The challenges ahead are not only a crisis to be solved but also at the same time a potential for Thuringia to develop and apply innovative proposals and become a model for living in a normality beyond the metropolis.

‘Plattform Wohndebatte’ will therefore be a forum with conferences, panels, reports, exhibitions, a competition of ideas and, above all, a regular framework for discussions. Some of the first outcomes are 3 conferences, the competition ‘LandGut 2050’, the exhibition ‘Wohnschau Thüringen’ — in physical as well as digital form — and last but not least the two publications ‘9 Thesis on housing’ and ‘Essays on housing’.