Art does matter: creating interventions in our thinking about housing

Debates about housing affordability, design and availability are regularly played out throughout media, policy, activist, housing and architectural frameworks. However, artists also have a tradition in representing and responding to contemporary debates about housing. Can we glean other possibilities for developing, constructing or understanding issues related to housing through the lens of artists? This chapter examines Australian and Swedish housing initiatives to demonstrate how these countries have responded to housing within the 1960s and 1970s and where the legacy of their developments and housing have arrived at in the 2000s. It explores the work of artists based in Australia and Sweden who have represented and celebrated Australian and Swedish housing through painting, installation and photography to distinguish similarities and differences in these nations responses to housing opportunities and crises. Whilst there is much to learn from artists representations of housing, it is also important to discover how artists can work directly with communities to extend the social potential of contemporary housing. As such, projects of American artist Rick Lowe and Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrc are noted for their direct engagement with communities to suggest new possibilities and interventions in contemporary housing.