Vienna has long been a leader in public housing, and 60 percent of its current population lives in city-built residences. The grand socialist Hofs of the late 1920s, like the Karl Marx and George Washington, have long been influential for affordable housing advocates. But Vienna is still building, following on its socialist tradition that has continued to build innovative housing up to this day. In August the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House in West Hollywood, California, is hosting an exhibition that features recent public housing from Vienna.

The Austrian capital has become a creative center in sustainable planning and housing policies. The former director of Vienna’s Department for Housing Research, Wolfgang Foerster, who oversaw extraordinary housing achievements in the city, has just launched PUSH, an online quarterly newsletter on urbanism and housing. A clearinghouse for housing information, the journal is inviting architects to submit projects on public and affordable housing. There is currently nothing like PUSH, and it should become an important clearinghouse for information on housing.