"The Local People do not Favour Residing in Apartments": Bauakademie's UN HABITAT Seminars on Housing for the Global South, 1987-1989
Abstract
East Germany has been a member of UN HABITAT/UNCHS (United Nations Centre for Human Settlements) since the 1970s and used the organisation both as a political platform for global discussions on housing as well as to strengthen its business prospects in developing countries. From 1984, the East German delegation to HABITAT was led by Bauakademie (East Germany's institute for architectural science).
In the late 1980s, the Academy organised a seminar series under the roof of HABITAT, targeted at urban planning and architecture professionals from the Global South. Around twenty of them visited Berlin, Dessau and other cities in 1987, 1988 and 1989 and were acquainted with what was presented as achievements of the East German housing industry and policy.
This article explores the rationale of the Academy as an organiser and juxtaposes its perspective with the participant's view. Some of them openly countered the idea that East German housing and city planning practices were easily transferable to other world regions, thus challenging not only the seminar concept but also the Academy's economic ambitions in the Global South and the underlying perceptions of progress and transferability.