Suche Wohnung! Von der Baracke zum Leerstand - exhibition

The issue of adequate housing preoccupies the public and policymakers like few other topics. However, this is by no means a recent phenomenon. That is why this exhibition focuses on cramped and precarious living conditions in Innsbruck over the past 120 years. The barracks built in various neighborhoods starting after World War I remained in use for a long time. After they gave way to new residential buildings in the 1960s and 1970s, precarious living conditions shifted to historic and dilapidated buildings in the city center.
Today, only refugees live in substandard housing—but the overheated housing market limits the square meters that ordinary people can afford. This inevitably raises questions about the actions of politicians and administrators. “Affordable housing” has long since degenerated into an empty catchphrase on the campaign posters of all political parties. In the years following World War II, for example, living conditions were carefully surveyed, and systematic assignments to private apartments were carried out. Today, the introduction of a vacancy tax is stirring up heated debate.