CO-HOUSING MOVEMENTS in Europe+ The European Co-Housing NETWORK

an essay by Glatz Zsófia and Bence Komlósi

Co-housing developments show their innovative way of thinking, their strong believe in traditional values and their resilient characteristics. They are affordable, bottom-up, community-oriented, cooperative, non-profit and self-managed. All these values make them resilient and sustainable. Countries such as Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom all have stronger and stronger co-housing movements but the development processes still cannot break their borders. In Eastern and Southern European countries such as the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Spain, the co-housing phenomena is new. A European Co-Housing Network could help to tear down the borders and to widen the co-housing movement in Europe. In the above mentioned countries, co-housing developments have some similarities but they have many different characteristics that could be discussed on an international level. Knowledge and experience transfer could help to realise an affordable, sustainable and resilient housing future.

Collaborative Housing and Community Resilience - Seminar Series

photo: http://collaborativehousing.net/seminars/two/seminar-two- photo-gallery/#jp-carousel-918 accessed 14 May, 2015.

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In France, social and institutional developments are the strongest; in Germany, building cooperatives are booming; in the UK, affordability and community land trust play the key questions; in Austria, building cooperatives and urban developments are in progress; in Denmark, elderly and urban-rural projects are in the focus and in Switzerland, social-, cultural- and economic diversity, ecological thinking and densification are the main topics. The knowledge and experience transfer among the countries should be on diverse levels and platforms for different stakeholders.

Guided Tour in the Kalkbreite

photo: http://www.muenster.org/buwo/wp-content/uploads/ 2014/09/kalkbreite-09.jpg accessed 14 May, 2015.

Keywords innovation, tradition, adaptation - resilience affordable, co-housing, knowledge transfer, level, network, non-profit, platform, sustainable, stakeholder

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Zsófia Glatz Studied Architecture and Engineering at BME Hungary from 2001 to 2007. In 2007-2010 attended the DLA (Doctor of Liberal Arts) Doctorate School at the Department of Residential Building Design, BME. In 2010, with doctoral scholarship, she took part in the first semester of MAS Housing - Wohnforum at the ETH Zürich. In the same year she won the Junior Prima Prize Hungary in the field of Architecture. Since 2007 takes part in the education of the Department of Residential Building Design, since 2013 she coordinates the housing research course “Department Research”. She lives and works in Zürich since 2010. As independent researcher, makes analysis on co-housing in Switzerland, Hungary and Europe-wide. Bence Komlósi Studied Architecture and Engineering at BME Hungary between 2001 and 2010. Studied at MAS Housing – ETH Wohnforum – ETH CASE, Zürich in 2012. Since 2007 takes part in the education at the Department of Residential Building Design, BME Hungary. Since 2013 he is coordinator and research assistant of the housing research course “Department Research” at BME Hungary. Since 2012 as independent researcher makes analysis on co-housing in Switzerland. In 2014 he started the DLA - Doctor of Liberal Arts - Doctorate School at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, MOME Hungary as correspondence student. Selected publications Glatz Zs. and Komlósi B.: Housing Norms vs. Real Needs, ETH Trans 24 – Normed (2014), pp. 74-79. Komlósi B. (interview with Liza Papazoglou): Genossenschaften? Nein danke! – Der weite Weg vom staatlichen Wohnungssektor zu neuen Wohnformen, Wohnen Extra (April 2015), pp. 14-15. Komlósi B.: Living Democracy - Bottom-Up Initiatives for Sustainable Housing Developments in Budapest, Housing Cooperatives as Potential Tools, MAS thesis (2013), MAS Housing, ETH Wohnforum - ETH CASE.

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