In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century the question whether the city is an agent rather than a stage for events is clearly answered in the affirmative – at least by architectural critics and neighbourhood activists. Their criticism against the functionalist tower-in-the-park developments of the 1950s and 1960s is that they did not foster social cohesion and participatory action. The contrary, in their opinion, is the case for dense tenemental environments: they are seen as promoting civic engagement and a democratic polity.

My paper will analyse the discourse connected to the dense multi-storey residences that were increasingly built in European cities since the 1970s. Based on examples of such “new tenements” in Rotterdam, Copenhagen, and Berlin it will show how the alleged civic value of inner-city residences was the product of socio-political conditions in these cities rather than of formal or stylistic characteristics of these buildings. It will also show that these attributions were subject to rapid change. While in the 1970s and 1980s new tenements were often tied to the ideal of a collectivist life enabled by a benevolent welfare state, they were later seen as the architecture of neo-liberalism, connected to the idea of a competitive, socially and economically successful individual.