Collaborative Housing Research Articles

Fostering long-term conviviality for refugees in the city: Inclusive, collaborative housing in Vienna

Vienna faces a ‘twofold housing and refugee crisis’ amid ongoing migration to Europe. As housing options become increasingly limited, refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers often struggle to find adequate housing, spending a disproportionate share of their income on substandard options. This research highlights progressive trends in Vienna’s refugee housing sector, particularly following the 2009 introduction of ‘Social Sustainability’ in building competitions by the City Council. This initiative has fostered several collaborative housing communities that support inclusive living. By analyzing four of these projects, the study identifies key factors that facilitate newcomers' social and spatial integration. Ultimately, the paper aims to advocate for newcomers’ right to quality housing, emphasizing the everyday and long-term challenges faced by inclusive communities striving for conviviality in a state of thrown togetherness.

Towards a “Freiburg Model” of Housing for the Common Good? Fostering Collaborative Housing in Urban Development

As the social and ecological costs of capital-driven housing markets become increasingly apparent, local governments are (re)establishing collaborations with housing organizations that prioritize affordability and sustainability over profits. This hesitant re-orientation, however, takes place under conditions of strained local budgets and the inscription of market principles into existing public policies and planning law. In this article, we develop an interdisciplinary perspective on the interplay between municipal housing policies, planning and legal frameworks, and collaborative housing organizations in the district development project “Kleineschholz” in Freiburg, Germany. Promoted by the local government as being 100% oriented towards the common good, multiple elements of the project are geared towards community involvement and a close dialogue between public bodies and housing organizations. At the same time, the local government and administration navigate divergent interests within and outside municipal institutions, multi-level legal frameworks, financial constraints, as well as institutional routines. We trace how the project’s common-good orientation is integrated into the co-productive process between housing policy, planning law, and collaborative housing groups. Our analysis centers on the process of concept-based tendering which is a key municipal lever for the project’s orientation towards the common good. Moving beyond the situated district of Kleineschholz, we outline the potentials and challenges of translating an orientation towards the common good into collaborative district development, against the background of present political and legal frameworks.

Her Space: Women’s Collective Living as a Form of Emancipation

Collective and cooperative living; a free, nonhierarchical space to express their individuality. These are some of the characters that emerged in feminist and women-centred utopias. La cité des dames by C. de Pizan (1405) and Herland by C. Perkins Gilman (1915) are two literary texts that, far in space and time, reflect on the modes of inhabiting spaces, in a fictional way, through the construction of an ideal milieu. Charged with a transformational power that allows them to go beyond a mere narration and become space, they constitute a tool for these women to critique the hierarchical living which reproduced (and still reproduces) gender roles. However, "What Would a Non-Sexist City Be Like?" through this question, Dolores Hayden condensed the lessons learnt from several built experiences of collective and collaborative housing that aimed at freeing women going from an androcentric to a gendered city. This contribution becomes part of the discussion about the spatialization – or translation – of gender equality into spaces and architectures by focusing specifically on women's collective living at different scales: the building, the block/complex, and the neighbourhood. These projects will be presented focusing on the role of architecture becoming a form of emancipation for women.

Property and values: the affordability, accessibility, and autonomy of collaborative housing

Not all approaches to collaborative housing deliver equally on affordability, accessibility, and autonomy. Some cases may become expensive or enclaved, while others that are accessible and affordable may have little collaboration. This paper compares eight cases of collaborative housing in Milan and Amsterdam to understand how collaboration projects deal with demands for affordability, accessibility, and autonomy. We identify four categories of collaborative housing—common, self-promoted, co-managed, and developer-led—along the two axes of tenure type and project initiator. Trade-offs in affordability, accessibility, and autonomy always persist; however, each can be fostered by three of the types (all but developer-led) when explicitly established as core values of the project.

Between the democratization of housing and the neoliberal responsibilization of citizens: The proliferation of co-housing in Viennese city planning

In contemporary city planning, self-organized collaborative forms of housing are flourishing. However, in the literature, the increasing incorporation of citizens in housing and planning has been interpreted in very different ways. The research on urban planning has understood the proliferation of co-housing groups as indicating changing participatory demands of citizens on one hand, and as an effort to organize social change on an everyday level on the other. In contrast, critical social researchers have interpreted the rise of collaborative housing not as a democratization, but as a shift of urban governance towards the responsibilization of citizens. In this article, we use these two theoretical perspectives for making sense of the political values that are present in the contemporary proliferation of co-housing groups in Viennese urban planning. The empirical base of our endeavor is a series of qualitative interviews with different stakeholders (city planners, administrators, architects, developers, and neighbors) and members of co-housing groups in the city development area Wildgarten in the South of the city. We conclude that in the Wildgarten, the self-empowerment of citizens goes hand-in-hand with an increasing top-down steering by a neoliberal entrepreneurial city. Furthermore, we found that the co-housing groups tend to willingly accept the hierarchy between planning bodies and themselves, which contradicts the political marketing strategies of social transformation and democratization attached to Wildgarten. Simultaneously, possibly as a consequence from top-down citizen responsibilization, our findings show that co-housing groups often focus more on a democratized group interior than on transforming society at large.

Housing activists' science communication: online practices as contextual and reflexive

Based on an understanding of science communication as `social conversation about science', in this paper we explore how technoscientific knowledge is communicated through housing activists' use of online media. We analyse collaborative housing groups in Vienna and find that their online communication practices are contextual and reflexive: technoscientific knowledges are always contextualised through the activists' political issues, while the activists constantly reflect on and negotiate their means and style of communication. The case both offers insights into the diverse ways and sites in which public sense-making about science takes place, and inspiration for other forms of science communication.

The potential of collaborative housing to tackle the social deficit of housing: the Chilean case

In recent decades, various programs have been developed as part of Chile’s housing policies to respond to the housing deficit. Most policies have so far focused on addressing the quantitative, qualitative, and urban deficits, neglecting the social dimension of housing. At the same time, the concept of collaborative housing has been referred to as a possible alternative to respond to these social challenges by fostering social cohesion, collaboration, and mutual aid. This article explores how collaborative housing can tackle the social deficit of housing. Here, we conceptualise this deficit as ‘the lack of non-physical or intangible social characteristics given among residents of a project, such as trust, social cohesion, and a sense of community, necessary for housing to be considered adequate.’ We examined the relation between these two concepts by developing a theoretical and empirical study. The first consisted of a theoretical framework and a review of literature on collaborative housing’s response to the social deficit of housing. Second, we interviewed stakeholders from two study cases. We found that residents in both collaborative housing cases perceive an improvement in their social interactions, sociability, trust, and sense of community in their current homes compared to previous homes. Therefore, we conclude that collaborative housing presents opportunities to tackle the social deficit of housing.

Towards a new Existenzminimum

This thesis brings forward the design dimension, and, more specifically, co-design, to the study of housing affordability. Co-design occurs when end-users and professionals work together towards a common goal. It is a process often applied in collaborative housing, an umbrella concept encompassing different housing forms based on collective self-organisation and collaboration, where residents choose to share certain spaces. The aim of this research is to assess if and how co-design processes applied in collaborative housing may reduce building costs, thereby making these housing projects not only affordable, but even more affordable than mainstream housing. It does so by combining a case study approach with a building costs simulation. Findings indicate that co-design decisions based on a collective self-redefinition of Existenzminimum (minimum dwelling) affect the housing layout and contribute to reduce building costs. By conceptualising housing design through the lenses of affordability, this thesis highlights the understated role of architectural design and building costs as key components in the study and provision of affordable housing solutions; and enriches the existing body of knowledge on affordable collaborative housing. Moreover, it draws attention to the way some outdated building regulations and standards hamper design innovation in housing. This research ends up with a set of general principles for the co-design of affordable collaborative housing. These design principles may assist professionals supporting co-design and, more importantly, people who want to design, build and live in a collaborative manner.

Unfolding the Concept of Flexibility in Collaborative Housing Design

The article discusses the concept of flexibility in architecture and its application in collaborative housing projects. It explores three key connotations of flexibility - redundancy, technical means, and political strategy - as put forth by Adrian Forty. The design strategies for flexibility in collaborative housing include filter elements to create an intimacy gradient, redundant circulation spaces, programmatic genericness of spaces, and a wide variety of typologies and technical devices. The article also discusses the role of collective decision-making in collaborative housing design and the construction of a shared meaning system to guide future choices.

Housing with care: queer geographies and the right to the city of LGBTQ+ urban communities. The Co-housing Queerinale/Agapanto project (Rome)

Feminist geography and epistemologies, since their beginnings, have encouraged us to start again from our bodies as situated geographies, from their experiences and embodied knowledge, to expose the power relations produced by the capitalist heteropatriarchal order and imprinted in the surrounding spaces. The body represents both the privileged dimension from which dynamics of violence, oppression and exploitation are experienced, and the place where new counter-hegemonic practices and forms of embodied knowledge may be produced. Starting with the notion of Wasteocene (2021) – an era marked by the continuous production of cast-off people, communities and places – by the landscape historian Marco Armiero, I will cross some toxic narratives typical of our society, all dear to neoliberal carelessness that inexorably produce waste and marginality. Opposed to these toxic discursive relations and constructions are the commoning practices, as those collective practices that simultaneously generate common goods and communities oriented towards care and inclusion. Along this path, I will present the Queerinale project promoted by the Agapanto Association for the conversion of a disused public building into a collaborative housing for LGBTQ+ elderly in the city of Rome, to re-signify our housing models and suggest new orientations for public policies.

The process of value setting through co-design: the case of La Borda, Barcelona

ABSTRACT Against the increasing commodification of housing, a new kind of housing cooperatives has emerged in Catalonia in the last decade. These cooperatives fall within the wider concept of collaborative housing (CH), i.e. they are collectively self-organised projects based on a collaborative design process, or ‘co-design’. In such a process, residents need to adjust their individual expectations and demands in order to reach a collective set of values to realise their housing project. The aim of this paper is to assess how values are set through co-design and translated into a housing project. To do so, we develop an analytical framework to conduct a longitudinal single case-study that traces back the co-design process of the resident-led housing cooperative La Borda, in Barcelona. Our findings shed light on how co-design unfolds and uncover trade-offs carried out to overcome tensions mostly between individual and collective demands and between building costs and quality.

Varieties of alternativeness: Relational practices in collaborative housing in Vienna

This article develops an empirically grounded frame for analysing varieties of alternativeness, using the case of such collaborative housing groups in Vienna (so-called Baugruppen) which aim to overcome the commodification of housing as well as the standardisation in social housing provision. Through experimenting with alternative ways of organising and living together they strive for social and political change. Taking inspiration from literature on commoning and alternative spaces, the article draws on French pragmatist sociology as well as post-actor-network theory (ANT) and assemblage approaches to focus on relational practices and different kinds of commonality as a basis for collective action. It analyses varieties of alternativeness as relational constellations by tracing how different groups compose commonality amongst each other, and how they relate to various actors. In doing so, it contributes to a situated understanding of the relations and relational practices that sustain alternatives, as well as the possibilities of scaling and transformation that specific variations of alternative housing hold.

The definition and taxonomy of collaborative housing as bottom-up and community-based forms of meeting housing needs in Poland

The concept of collaborative housing emerged in Poland less than a decade ago. From the historical perspective, living in a community has a long tradition. In Poland, the first projects operating similarly to collaborative housing initiatives emerged right after World War I, when destroyed cities experienced scarcity of flats and houses. Currently, the form and conditions to be met by pro- jects in order to be classified into collaborative housing as under- stood nowadays are changing. The concept is based on collaborative housing projects successfully operating in the countries of Western Europe. In Poland, only few such investments have been established (Nowe Żerniki, Kooperatywa Mieszkaniowa Pomorze and Kooperatywa Mieszkaniowa Konstancin – this project is constructed with support of Habitat for Humanity Poland). In the face of the ongoing socioeconomic changes, however, they might become an interesting alternative to commercial housing construction.

Toward a feminist housing commons? Conceptualising care - (as) - work in collaborative housing

ABSTRACT This article conceptualizes care-(as)-work in collaborative housing and addresses current debates on the potential of cohousing to embody a feminist commons. A focus on purpose-built cohousing projects in the UK enables us to focus on the values present in the initial phases of collective design and on the ongoing negotiations and mediation that take place through social interactions, resident-led self-management, and formal and informal mutual support. Our analysis is based on in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with two communities in England. Our contribution focuses on two aspects of care-(as)-work: how difficult emotions related to cohousing maintenance work are minimized for the good of the common and how such work is differentially embodied. Returning to cohousing’s transformational capacities as a feminist commons, we show that while boundaries of care in commoning are critical to residents, they are inherently blurry, performative and gendered.

Collaborative housing: Mutual aid, cooperatives, and participation in public promotion policies for housing

On one hand, this research is framed within the results of two Spanish public housing interventions, and on the other, the beginnings of an extended collaborative housing model on the island of Gran Canaria. The research analyzes collaborative housing and its relationship with the management mechanisms that can or should accompany public policies for housing, by observing the cases of Andalusia and Barcelona, both inspired by Uruguay’s cooperative housing model. After studying the case on the island of Gran Canaria, the need for housing policies that incorporate mutual aid, transfer of use, cooperativism, or citizen participation is proposed.

Daily Space

Three articles in this issue of Arquitecturas del Sur are dedicated to collective housing, as the housing shortage has led to new and better forms of citizen participation in its solution. The Indigenous Temporary Accommodation in Florianopolis handles an essentially Latin American problem: access for Indigenous people to protected state housing. In this case, the presence of the city’s original inhabitants examines the possibilities of physical and symbolic spaces in the contemporary city and the professional role that looks into the responses. Next, the text on collaborative housing analyzes the case of Spain, and its relationship with public management mechanisms. The case of Gran Canaria looks at mutual aid issues, transfer of use, cooperativism, and citizen participation. In this way, the self-construction system of the Andalusian Junta, a practice that is as effective as it is controversial, and representative of a socialist cooperativism and cohabitation developed by the Barcelona City Council, converge in the debate on cooperative management. The third text looks into one of the latest events disclosed on CORVI’s actions, before its dissolution in 1976. It explores a management model that revealed the role of construction companies as a new player in the habitational process for the case of the Santiago Amengual Neighborhood. A second thematic group in this issue, materialized in its last 3 articles, returns to the structural issues of modern-day architecture, whose presence is diving deeper into the disciplinary debate. The places of memory seem to exceed the margins of an understanding based on heritage discourse. The memory and belonging of daily spaces, turn one to the nodes of memory and collective coherence. This is the case of the Community School – Center of Memory and Integrated Action to Care for the Forest of Galilea and the Territory of Colombia. Likewise, the individual, isolated, and selective expressions examine those unusual experiences where otherness exercises protagonism over experiences in the architecture and city of Santiago de Chile. Finally, revisiting the works of a master like Niemeyer opens the possibility for rereading, through actions based on the Portuguese decisions in two of his works: the urban complex of Pena Furada, in Portugal (1965), and Plaza XV, in Rio de Janeiro (1991).

Limitations in the diffusion of collaborative housing in Poland: Expectations and beliefs of young generation as potential users

ABSTRACT There is a strong attachment to individual homeownership in Poland. Young people, just after graduating from college, make housing decisions, most often aimed at purchasing a dwelling and taking out a long-term mortgage. With soaring housing prices in Poland between 2016 and 2021, this is increasingly difficult. Therefore, new integrative, collaborative, and social innovative forms of residence are required, especially when considering the expectations and beliefs of young adults. The authors use Rogers’ five attributes of innovation to examine the constraints on the diffusion of collaborative housing in Poland. A web-based questionnaire survey was conducted among 283 students drawn at the Poznan University of Economics and Finance in Poland. Using the binary logistic regression method, the authors identified a strong relationship between the belief in sharing instead of buying and the respondents’ preference for collaborative housing. Furthermore, lack of application of pro-environmental solutions in collaborative housing, a prolonged process of designing and building such projects, and a strong attachment of young people to individual ownership constitute serious limitations to the diffusion of housing innovations in Poland.

Traces of Obduracy: Imaginaries of ‘Social Inertia’ in the Process of Introducing Collaborative Housing in the Czech Republic

This paper explores the sociotechnical change necessary for the introduction of collaborative housing projects into the Czech super-homeownership housing regime. To better understand the obduracy of the current housing system, we examine the major barriers and threats to the implementation of such projects through a series of workshops with non-experts in selected cities. Our findings suggest that the housing system’s obduracy is related to social imaginaries that we conceptualise as the ‘imaginary of social inertia’. This form of imaginary, along with other factors such as a lack of supporting legal and financial infrastructures, creates a complex network of obstacles that reduce the likelihood of such housing projects gaining ground. In conclusion, our research emphasises the role of imaginaries in studying obduracy and thus provides valuable insights into the processes of urban sociotechnical change.

Ri-abitare gli spazi: immaginari, utopie e pratiche in trasformazione

Today our daily life appears a multifaceted and articulated mix of ordinary and extraordinary, stability and change: a context inside which a range of latent “possibilities” is nested, on which human creativity committed to building the future seems to find expression (Jedlowski 2017, Augé 2012, Appadurai 2014). Investigating the theme of spaces and living has a lot to do with reflection on change – and on the subject’s ability to imagine and build the future – because it implies questioning a world that is changing and arouses new expectations and needs. Compared to a period in which, in our country, (little or) almost no reflection was carried out on this phenomenon, the house today appears (to be) one of the universal places from which to try to rethink ourselves and the word we live in. This essay will consider the contribution that some innovative collaborative housing practices, including co-housing, seem to offer to the rethinking of urbanity. Such practices in fact make explicit the inclination to be open to others, the aspiration to care, to feel in tune with the neighbourhood and surrounding spaces, and more generally with the world, in a perspective of trust towards the future.

Sharing Is Saving? Building Costs Simulation of Collaborative and Mainstream Housing Designs

Building costs play a significant role in determining the affordability of a housing project, and these depend to a large extent on design choices. This paper is based on the premise that collaborative design processes, or co-design, used in collaborative housing (CH) in Europe reduce building costs and consequently increase the affordability of these housing projects. However, research remains scarce on the extent to which CH is an affordable solution from a design perspective compared to affordable mainstream housing (MH), in which no co-design is used. Therefore, this paper aims to fill this knowledge gap by assessing the impact of design choices on building costs in CH and MH. To this end, we developed a simulation model to compare the building costs of CH with MH based on their design choices. Findings indicate that CH represents a more affordable and space-efficient solution when compared to MH, if we look at the building costs per unit. This is because CH provides less expensive units while it includes larger common spaces and extra quality. These results help to refute existing claims about the unaffordability of CH design solutions.