WP 4 : case study report co-operative housing

This report covers three in-depth empirical studies about co-operative housing movement aiming to catch a wide-range of phenomena. The first case is the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) focusing in the Co-operative Housing International (CHI) (a whole co-operative ecosystem inside the ICA). CHI covers 65 countries members (October, 2015), which are more or less active in the networking activities at a global level. In relation with local manifestations, this report includes the description and analysis of two co-operative Housing phenomena: one located in Germany (the building-up of the City of Vauban - Freiburg made by housing co-operatives) and the other in Argentina (the housing co-operative “El Hogar Obrero”). El Hogar Obrero (Worker’s Home), located in Buenos Aires City, Argentina. During its history (more than one hundred years) EHO built more than 15,000 homes and reached one million members; but due to changes in local and international context, EHO almost ceased to exist by the end of 1980s. Since 2005, EHO has re-emerged as an alternative means for the production of affordable housing and the right to the city, recovering the experiences learned from its previous history. The second local case study is a joint analysis. First, the section starts with the case of the Vauban District located in Freiburg, part of the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Vauban is not a single co-housing project, but a special model district of sustainable living and participatory planning in which several co-housing initiatives could be realized. Legally, Vauban is a newly build district of the city of Freiburg with 2000 housing units for about 5.500 residents. Vauban is a whole, somewhat unusual – and as such very specific and innovative – city quarter which is hosting a variety of different housing projects, with a special focus on citizen-lead building initiatives and private co-housing projects. Vauban is especially interesting because it consists of different types of co-housing projects and ownership models. The case study focusses on largest and oldest co-housing cooperative of Vauban, called GENOVA (Wohnungsgenossenschaft Vauban).

Citation

Picabea, F., Kunze, I., Bidinost, A., Phillip, A. and Becerra, L. (2016) WP 4 : case study report : co-operative housing, TRANSIT: EU SSH.2013.3.2-1 Grant agreement no: 613169.