Keeping Up Palaces For People

The film presents two post-war public housing estates:

Corviale in Rome, designed by Mario Fiorentino (1973-81), and Gellerup in Aarhus, designed by Knud Blach Petersen and Mogens Harbo (1961-75). Both emerged from a period of ambitious public housing provision and experimentation with prefabrication and industrial construction.

Today, like many post-war estates across Europe, they face technical decay, climate-related challenges and social stigma. While architecture is often held responsible for the problems they face, politicians frequently call for demolition or retrofitting, equating solutions with technical investment. The films instead suggest that maintenance must also be understood as a cultural practice and as a means of caring for places and communities.