Co - living
| Moriyama House - architect Ruye Nishisawa, photographer: Edmund Sumner |
Housing is scarce. This is a trend that has emerged in recent years. Globally, the earth's population is growing and relocating to cities. At the same time, real estate prices in major cities continue to rise, and conventional ideas of housing development are proving unable to meet the demands. Western European cities have already faced this problem. The response to these challenges has been a quiet revolution in contemporary architecture - towards collective building and living.
In the last 10 years, a social movement has been growing that is oriented towards collectivity and sharing and has laid the foundations for the so-called "sharing economy", an increasingly visible trend in modern societies. At the root of this movement are questions such as: why buy a car when it can be shared? Why book a hotel room when you can swap homes? Innovative business solutions such as Spark, Car2go, Airbnbuse exactly this sharing of services as a basis. This trend inevitably affects the housing sector as well. Influenced by the high property prices in recent years - especially in Central Europe, ambitious projects are being created that combine extremely high quality of life and good locations. This seemingly unachievable result is being achieved through innovative space sharing.
Another major factor that predisposes to collectivity is demographic change. The classic model of a family of four in a house with a yard is becoming less and less relevant. In Europe, the majority of housing units are occupied by one or two people. The way we work is also changing and it is becoming more common to find people living between two cities or even two countries. This has an impact on the way the home as a whole is perceived, and therefore on
residential architecture.
In fact, collective living is not a new trend. As early as the 18th century, Charles Fourier created the Phalanstère , a utopian community of around 500 people living and working for a common cause. In the 1920s, especially in Scandinavian countries, cooperatives emerged that offered shared ownership. The autonomous neighbourhood Christiania in Copenhagen and Kartargo, the first cooperative in Zurich, are examples of collective living from the 1970s. All these projects are a response to a lack of quality housing for a large part of the population.
What are the contemporary projects that offer innovative concepts? Why are they so popular and what makes them different?
| Kalkbreite, Zurich photographer |
The building is the size of a city block, has a cinema, 97 apartments for about 250 people, 5,000 square metres of retail space, a hotel area and a public roof terrace, and is entirely built on a tram depot. Rents are below market, despite Zurich's expensive housing market. The result of a 40-year process, the project is an answer to the question: how can you create a co-operative adequate for the 21st century. What is interesting about the project is that there is no separation between the tram depot, housing and commercial space.
The apartments are built around a public courtyard built above the tram depot, which is surrounded by commercial and cultural spaces. The circulation inside is spread out, which helps the large building break into separate units of housing and work spaces. There's plenty of room for movie screens in the Houdini Cinema, the restaurant has 16-foot ceilings, and the streetcars are parked in the heart of the building.
There is a lot of interest in joining the co-op, but the way to get into "membership" is pretty simple. First, those wishing to become prospective tenants pay a membership fee of 1,000 francs, for which they acquire the right to rent an apartment when it becomes vacant. When a vacancy occurs, landlords pay for shares in the cooperative according to the size of the apartment as a deposit. Rents are paid per square metre, with a 100 square metre flat costing around 2,000 Swiss francs a month.In small Zurich, where around 70% of the population live in rented accommodation, demand for co-ops in Kalkbreite or other complexes is incredibly high and there is a waiting list of years for an apartment.
| Sargfabrik, Vienna photographer |
Another very successful collective project is Sargfabrik in Vienna. In 1996, an old coffin factory was rebuilt into a residential area with about 100 housing units. The autonomous residential and cultural project consists of several buildings and offers various services, such as a restaurant, swimming pool, event hall and laundry. Officially, Sargfabrik is registered as a hostel, thus building regulations for residential buildings are bypassed. For this reason very few parking spaces are allowed to be planned, one space per ten dwellings or ten households. Three of the parking spaces are used for car sharing. Sargfabrik is also the largest self-managed residential and cultural building in Austria. The project is managed by an association that also owns the homes.
The building has a large green park that is open to the public, as well as a large roof garden. Sargfabrik also offers a varied cultural program that
includes music concerts by various international groups, theatre and dance performances. There is also a spa area with a Finnish sauna, a Jacuzzi, and swimming pools that are open to the public. The project was so successful that the same association implemented Miss Sargfabrik in 2001. The new building offers the same model and features but on a smaller footprint.
| Spreefeld, Berlin photographer |
Another very interesting project is the Spreefeld in Berlin. On the banks of the river Spree in central Berlin are three buildings with 62 residential units. In the last seven years, rents in Berlin have risen by 71 percent, making it one of the fastest rising cities globally.
The Spreefeld collective was founded 20 years ago, mainly by architects looking for an answer to the question: how can you offer quality spaces, large, bright living rooms, spacious terraces, and at low prices? In discussions with various participants, the idea of cluster apartments was born. These are dwellings that consist of about 10 small studios with a kitchen and bathroom and a shared kitchen, living room and terrace. In this way, each occupant of the cluster apartment has private space in their studio, but also access to large common areas. In addition, the complex has a large vegetable garden and park, rooms for music, a large communal kitchen and a garage for boats. The rent is fixed at 4 euros per square meter for the next 60 years.
| Cluster Apartment, Spreefeld, Berlin, photographer |
| Moriyama house, Tokyo architect: Ruye Nishisawa |
Innovative housing solutions are also being seen in Japan, prompted by high property prices and a lack of space in the island nation. The Moriyama House, designed by Ryue Nishizawa, breaks the conventional idea of residential architecture by blurring the lines between private and communal. On a small plot of land are ten different sized buildings - cubes shared by six people. Mio Tsuneyama's design in Tokyo, creates a shared space for seven occupants, similar to the cluster-apartments in Spreefeld.
| House for seven people, Tokyo architect |
All of these examples highlight the trend that co-ops and collective living are not a thing of the past, but are marking a comeback and could be a solution to an increasingly tightening housing market. But beyond the purely financial aspect, the projects are also social in nature. They are extremely popular, not only because they are affordable, but also because they offer the multifunctionality that is so desirable nowadays. It is noticeable that in all projects, a large part of the services are publicly available. For example, anyone can have a barbecue on the roof of the Kalkbreite in Zurich or rent the Sargfabrik music hall in Vienna. These projects thus have a positive impact on the city as a whole. That is why municipal administrations are supporting them more and more. In Bulgaria, even if such projects are not exactly visible at the moment, the demand for spaces to work and live in with a quality urban environment and a variety of functions and services is noticeably starting to rise. This predisposes to the creation of more and more buildings that are not only purposeful, but combine different functions and diversify urban life.
Author
Ina Valkanova is an architect with an interest in the processes that create a quality urban environment. Based between Zurich and Sofia, she is currently part of the Vision for Sofia team working on the long-term development strategy for Sofia and its suburban areas.
BLD is a real estate developer specialising in the construction of residential buildings. BLD is one of the leaders in new construction in Sofia. All real estate is issued with Act 16, and sales of their apartments are made directly by the builder.