It has been nearly fifteen years since a large European Union–funded project called RESTATE explored challenges in housing estates throughout several European countries and served as a clearinghouse for the exchange of ideas for counteracting negative trends in large housing estates (van Kempen et al. 2005). Since that time, a series of riots in the Paris banlieues and in the “Million Homes Programme” suburbs in Stockholm have revealed that many problems remain. Major European newspapers, including The Guardian, frequently publish articles about deep social problems in housing estates, the poor image from which they suffer, and dissident groups that reside in them. Families with resources often move away from large housing estates, and housing estates contribute to increasing segregation levels in European cities (Tammaru et al. 2016a). Immigration currently introduces new groups to European cities, and their initial places of settlement are low-cost neighborhoods, often in large housing estates (Wessel 2016). Moreover, new challenges arise, such as the ongoing aging of buildings along with their environments, which necessitates new investments and raises challenges related to sustainability, energy reduction, and aging populations. With many cities operating on austerity budgets and lacking cash to invest in improving housing and neighborhoods, now is a good time to revisit the challenges faced by large housing estates in European cities. This essay presents the key findings of the book Housing Estates in Europe: Poverty, Ethnic Segregation and Policy Challenges, and is structured around ten takeaway messages. These messages convey, on the one hand, that few substantial changes have occurred in large housing estates in Europe since the RESTATE project, but they also carefully clarify some of the strategies for improvement that might help to secure a solid future for the dwellings and inhabitants of Europe’s large housing estates. Findings from past studies including High-Rise Housing in Europe (Turkington et al. 2004) and the RESTATE project (Van Kempen et al. 2005) provide in-depth evidence of the varieties of change in large housing estates in Europe through the mid-2000s. A recent book entitled Socio-Economic Segregation in European Capital Cities (Tammaru et al. 2016b) documents growing levels of segregation across Europe, suggesting an increasing overlap of ethnic and social segregation often to be found in large housing estates. Our current book focuses on the formation and later socio-spatial trajectories of large housing estates in Europe. The long-term growth in social inequalities in Europe, a growing number of immigrants in European cities seeking affordable housing, and the physical aging of apartment buildings form key policy challenges related to large housing estates in Europe. This essay provides comparative city- and metropolitan-level evidence of the origins, trajectories of change, and future prospects of large housing estates. It specifically investigates the actions needed to realistically improve the fortunes of housing estates experiencing downward trends and pathways to enhance life for the residents living in them. This chapter is organized around ten synthesized takeaway messages distilled from the sixteen chapters of the book Housing Estates in Europe: Poverty, Ethnic Segregation and Policy Challenges. @en

Mid-twentieth-century large housing estates, which can be found all over Europe, were once seen as modernist urban and social utopias that would solve a variety of urban problems. Since their construction, many large housing estates have become poverty concentrating neighbourhoods, often with large shares of immigrants. In Northern and Western Europe, an overlap of ethnic, social and spatial disadvantages have formed as ethnic minorities, often living on low incomes, settle in the most affordable segments of the housing market. The aim of this introductory chapter is to synthesise empirical evidence about the changing fortunes of large housing estates in Europe. The evidence comes from 14 cities—Athens, Berlin, Birmingham, Brussels, Budapest, Bucharest, Helsinki, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Moscow, Prague, Stockholm and Tallinn—and is synthesised into 10 takeaway messages. Findings suggest that large housing estates are now seen as more attractive in Eastern Europe than in Western Europe. The chapter also provides a diverse set of visions and concrete intervention measures that may help to improve the fortunes of large housing estates and their residents.@en

This open access book explores the formation and socio-spatial trajectories of large housing estates in Europe. Are these estates clustered or scattered? Which social groups originally had access to residential space in housing estates? What is the size, scale and geography of housing estates, their architectural and built environment composition, services and neighbourhood amenities, and metropolitan connectivity? How do housing estates contribute to the urban mosaic of neighborhoods by ethnic and socio-economic status? What types of policies and planning initiatives have been implemented in order to prevent the social downgrading of housing estates?

The collection of chapters in this book addresses these questions from a new perspective previously unexplored in scholarly literature. The social aspects of housing estates are thoroughly investigated (including socio-demographic and economic characteristics of current and past inhabitants; ethnicity and segregation patterns; population dynamics; etc.), and the physical composition of housing estates is described in significant detail (including building materials; building form; architectural and landscape design; built environment characteristics; etc.). This book is timely because the recent global economic crisis and Europe’s immigration crisis demand a thorough investigation of the role large housing estates play in poverty and ethnic concentration. Through case studies of housing estates in 14 European centers, the book also identifies policy measures that have been used to address challenges in housing estates throughout Europe.@en