This article deals with the art of shaping and introducing contemporary residential buildings into the historic urban fabric using contemporary materials and means of architectural expressions. Lidzbark Warmiński is a medieval town whose historical context was a key aspect of the teaching process for the housing project carried out at the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology. The particular context of cultural heritage requires an extremely sensitive design approach, and any new interference with the existing urban fabric should not only be preceded by urban planning and architectural analyses, but also be subject to studies of social onditions, such as the expectations of residents towards the new buildings. The social determinants were included in the interdisciplinary curriculum as part of the classes conducted during the 5th semester of the long-cycle studies as part of the Architectural Design – Housing course, carried out in cooperation with sociology students at the University of Warsaw, who conducted a survey and drafted a Research Report. Cooperation with the Sociologists resulted not only in the report, but also in successive knowledge transfer on social issues and sensitisation to the needs of the local community. The Sociologists’ report on the survey carried out with the residents of Lidzbark Warmiński and its results were also the basis for the design assumptions, in this case enriched with social threads. This article presents the designs made by the students and the process of their creation.