The paper discusses urban policies for social housing in Vienna and Frankfurt in the inter World War years of the twentieth century. It provides not only historical knowledge, but also examines social housing ensembles within the contemporary city from an architectural comparative perspective. The study’s main hypothesis is that both cities produced two valid architectural models nowadays, which belong to the contemporary city itself. The comparison of specific examples will be conducted on the basis of quantitative data, pictures, and through the use of re-drawing with the highest graphic homogeneity. The objective of the paper is the production of a new critical tool, which can contribute to a better understanding of these architectural experiences, as well as offer suggestions to the current design of social housing, collective space and to the urban character of the contemporary city.