This article makes a case for reappraising the designed landscapes of postwar
social housing as welfare landscapes to inform current debates, policies
and practices regarding social housing and its renewal. We look back at the
development processes of three Danish estates which literally materialised
the emerging welfare state in concrete, asphalt, plantings and earthworks.
Guided by actor-network theory we recount how their landscapes materialised
as multiscalar socio-material assemblages. We show that non-human
things played a crucial role in the development of welfare landscapes which
focused on child welfare and community development, offered architectural
and ecological diversity, and co-shaped the urban landscape beyond
the individual estates. Understanding welfare landscapes as socio-material
assemblages does not only acknowledge the role of non-human things in
their historical production. Ultimately it also calls for the inclusion of the
welfare of non-human species and may offer inspiration for developing
future welfare landscapes for more than humans.