Demographic and social change are placing new demands on architecture. In this essential volume, architectural sociologist Katharina Weresch examines three building typologies selected to correspond with three areas of life: day care centers for children, family and multigenerational living spaces, and residential facilities and care facilities for the elderly. Building on Norbert Elias’s sociological studies, Waresch outlines the historical development of these three types and shows how social standards of behavior and of perception manifest themselves in space, aesthetics, and architecture. The book researches, and in part empirically investigates, built examples from the last two decades, such as the company kindergarten Troplo Kids in Hamburg, the Munich cooperative wagnisART, or the Dutch village de Hogeweyk for sufferers of dementia.


Funktionen der Architektur offers detailed insight into the interdependence of architecture and society while also providing practically applicable knowledge for planning. Its focus is on the question of how architecture can contribute to improving quality of life in order to promote child development, the individual living needs of families, intergenerational communication, and the health of the elderly.