This project explores how subtle, often overlooked transformations of housing emerge and quietly reshape urban landscapes. By examining everyday practices of residents alongside the actions of public authorities and the pressures of housing markets, it traces where formality and informality, legality and illegality, regulation and creativity intersect in contemporary cities.
It examines how regulated, deregulated, and tolerant housing frameworks shape hidden housing strategies, capturing both local specificities and broader European dynamics, and offering insights to support more inclusive and responsive housing policies.
New publication: The book “Informal Housing in the Global North” edited by Jakub Galuszka is out now. The chapters include, among other things, general reflections on the transformation of the housing system and insights into the subletting market in Berlin, one of our case study cities. Click here for more information.
New Project: Starting in January 2026 the project team will participate in exchanges with colleagues from the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney as part of the DAAD-funded project "Housing affordability crisis, approaches and outcomes: Comparative Analysis of German and Australian Urban Contexts".
This site is a catalogue of housing practices and strategies. It presents stories and visual documentation of the transformation of housing in the cities studied in the project, making research findings visible and accessible. It also collects related material from outside the project to create an archive of how ordinary people are shaping the housing system.
About
Inconspicous Transformations is a research project at the chair of Sustainable Cities and Climate Change at HafenCity University Hamburg.
contact@inconspicuous-transformations.eu
Research Topic
Across Europe, housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable, particularly in prosperous, growing and densely populated cities. Due to the ongoing commodification of housing, the diminishing supply of social housing and associated gentrification processes, people are increasingly forced to rely on precarious 'hidden' housing markets and self-organised solutions to meet their housing needs.
Although these markets are largely unrecognised in policy and academic discourse, they have become an essential source of accommodation for not only the most marginalised groups, but also the middle classes. In this way, new housing and spatial practices extend beyond clearly informal and marginal solutions, such as squats or makeshift settlements, to become a common feature of housing formats that are conventionally understood as formal. This project aims to improve our understanding of these inconspicuous housing transformations in three countries that represent different manifestations of these phenomena and have diverse attitudes towards them (ranging from stronger control to deregulation and toleration).
The project aims to document the types of socio-spatial changes occurring in current housing markets, stimulate theoretical debate, develop tools for measuring these phenomena and raise awareness of housing issues in Europe.
Team
Prof Dr Jakub Galuszka
Jakub is a Junior Professor for Sustainable Cities and Climate Change and the project's principal investigator.
Lucas-Andrés Elsner
Lucas is a research associate in the project and an urban planner and geographer by training.
Alkistis Thomidou
Alkistis is a research assoicate in the project. She is an architect engineer (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) and holds a MAS Urban Design from ETH Zürich. She is a co-founder of the architecture and desing practice forty five degrees in Berlin.
Diyara Dyussembekova
Diyara is a student research assistant on the project. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture and is currently studying for a Master's degree in the Resource Efficiency in Architecture and Planning programme at HCU.
Funding body
German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG); Project number 550264075
Collaborators
Project Partners
School of Geography and Plannig, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
Dr. Sina Shahab
Sina is a senior lecturer in planning and land policy. He serves as the Secretary General of the International Academic Association on Planning, Law, and Property Rights
Commonspace, Athens, Greece
Sylvain Adam
Sylvain is an architect specialised in participatory processes in architectural design and urban planning.
Artemis Koumparelou
Artemis is an architect and geographer involved in participatory design projects, spatial analysis studies and research programmes at commonspace.
Giannis Paraskevopoulos
Giannis is a Geoinformatics Engineer (National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), and holds a MSc in Urban & Regional Planning from NTUA. He is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography and Regional Planning of NTUA.
Network
University of Sydney, School of Architecture, Design and Planning
Dr Greta Werner, Dr Zahra Nasreen, Prof Nicole Gurran
Outputs
Publications
Elsner, L.-A., Bouchehri, M., Łojewska, O., & Potanina, A. (2025). Living in someone else’s place: An exploration of subletting practices in Berlin in times of housing crisis. In J. Galuszka (Ed.), Informal Housing in the Global North. Exploring Practices, Actors and Processes in a Transforming Housing System, (pp. 160–179). Routledge.
Galuska, J. (2025). Informal Housing in the Global North. Informal Housing in the Global North. Exploring Practices, Actors and Processes in a Transforming Housing System. Routledge
Galuska, J. (2025). Concluding remarks and way forward. In J. Galuszka (Ed.), Informal Housing in the Global North. Exploring Practices, Actors and Processes in a Transforming Housing System, (pp. 180–182). Routledge.
Galuszka, J. (2025). Introduction: Perspectives on housing informality in the “North”. In J. Galuszka (Ed.), Informal Housing in the Global North. Exploring Practices, Actors and Processes in a Transforming Housing System, (pp. 1–16). Routledge.
Galuszka, J. (2025). Otherness and informality: Everyday tactics of social inclusion among Oxford boating community. In J. Galuszka (Ed.), Informal Housing in the Global North. Exploring Practices, Actors and Processes in a Transforming Housing System, (pp. 63–77). Routledge.
Gastaminza Vacas, I., & Elsner, L.-A. (2025). Wohnungssuche als Dauerzustand. Temporäre Untermietverhältnisse als Normalität für viele Zugezogene, MieterEcho, 451, 14–15, https://www.bmgev.de/mieterecho/archiv/2025/me-single/article/wohnungssuche-als-dauerzustand/
Presentations
Galuszka, J.; L. Elsner; A. Thomidou & A. Wilk-Pham: Climate change adaptation and bottom-up housing development: Synergies and conflicting rationalities. Dies Academicus, HCU Hamburg, 26.06.2025
Galuszka, J. & L.-A. Elsner: ‘It’s Not Working between Us Anymore...’ – Power Imbalances and Legal Ambiguity in Berlin's Subletting Sector. 5th ISA Forum of Sociology. Mohammed V University, 07.07.2025
Elsner, L.-A. & J. Galuszka: Forced to Live with Strangers. An Exploration of Subletting Practices in Berlin in Times of Housing Crisis. 5th ISA Forum of Sociology. Mohammed V University, 09.07.2025
Elsner, L.-A.: From niche to mainstream? Exploring the diversifying shared housing sector in Berlin. Epistemes of non-dominant inhabitation workshop. Development Planning Unit, University College London, 16.01.2026
Activities
DAAD Project "Housing affordability crisis, approaches and outcomes:
Comparative Analysis of German and Australian Urban
Contexts"
This DAAD-funded exchange project will facilitate exchanges between the project team and scholars from the University of Sydney's School of Architecture, Design and Planning. These exchanges will allow for in-person workshops in Hamburg, Berlin and Sydney, as well as joint field research sessions in both countries.