ABSTRACT
During most of the twentieth century, in many European countries, middle-class housing contributed to the accumulation of family wealth and social status and their transmission from one generation to the following one. Admittedly, such an assumption cannot be generalized: interpretations of the social role of housing may vary according to a plurality of historical and cultural factors, as the plurality of words and expressions used to designate dwellings clearly show. The crisis affecting middle classes in several European regions makes resources for a renovation of housing conditions less easily available: families may choose to stick with their homes and make the best out of the existing housing conditions. In countries where multi-family dwellings and the ownership of apartments were the privileged model for middle-class modern housing, multi-ownership may result in an increasing difficulty in making shared decisions about renovation choices.
