In the context of the social and economic changes that have led ti transformations in the way people live and organize their lives seven international authors analyze existing housing complexes of post-war modernism. To what extent can the functionally optimized dwelling units of the post-war era still meet the demands of society today? Is it possible to achieve significant improvements with just small interventions? How can these be implemented under the heterogeneous political, economic, and social conditions? As a basis for discussion the publishers present central theses on design strategies and on political and social transformation processes. They use five current examples from Germany, Austria, France, Sweden and Switzerland that illustrate the ideal of the small intervention - examples that prove to be both close to pracyice and effective as interventions.