Deconstruct

This work considers the demolition of housing as a moment of transition in time—an act that signals change beyond immediate need. In towns and cities where housing is scarce and deeply valued, including Eisenhüttenstadt, the disappearance of homes raises difficult questions. Why, in a place where housing should be precious, is it being removed?

Nearly forty years after reunification, Eisenhüttenstadt continues to face the long-term effects of depopulation. The local housing co-operative, EWG, is tasked with managing this ongoing challenge, navigating between economic necessity and social responsibility. Demolition becomes a strategy of adaptation, yet it is also an erasure.

What is being dismantled was, until recently, someone’s home. Behind each identical façade lies a different life, a different history. Though the apartments appear uniform, each carries personal meaning shaped by those who lived there. Displacement is not abstract—it is intimate and individual.

This work responds to the structural realities of depopulation while insisting on the human dimension embedded within them. It acknowledges the need to react to demographic change, but resists reducing the process to numbers or policy alone. Instead, it holds space for the personal stories contained within these buildings, marking demolition not only as an urban intervention, but as a deeply human event.

Many thanks to Stanley Fuls, Director, Eisenhüttenstädter Wohnungsbaugenossenschaft eG.