The ‘Floor Plan Manual Housing’ and the web-database ‘Building Types Online’, both published by Birkhaeuser, are the main publications and platforms for literature-and  case-study based housing typology research. The ongoing works on both publications closely connects to the design research of the Urban Housing Lab and also the teaching of housing design studios and housing typology seminars, benefiting essentially from feedback from students.

‘Floor Plan Manual Housing’, Fifth, Revised and Expanded Edition 

The Floor Plan Manual Housing is a globally established seminal work in the field of housing architecture, used by practitioners, educators and students. Its 5th, revised and expanded edition documents and analyzes more than 160 international housing projects built after 1945. The project section is preceded by six analytical introductory essays, whose various focal points provide the reader with knowledge on ways of reading of plans, historical developments, contemporary challenges and tendencies, circulation systems, apartment typology and morphological and organizational approaches to apartment designs. 

Updated, revised and expanded editions are published by Birkhäuser every 6-8 years and ongoing research is conducted by us during this period. The publication is thus an opportunity to share findings on emerging challenges and developments in habitation with a broad audience in academia and practice.  

The Floor Plan Manual Housing is distributed globally as hard- and soft cover and as eBook in English and German. It is available and applied at numerous architecture departments worldwide, and to be found at more than 80% of libraries at universities with the 200 top rated departments for the study of Architecture / Built Environment, (according to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking 2019).