CO-HOPE Stakeholder Workshop

CO-HOPE (Collaborative Housing in a Pandemic Era), is an international research project involving institutions from Sweden, Austria, Finland, France and Spain. Through theoretically informed applied research on collaborative housing, this project aims at generating potential-oriented recommendations for policymakers, and implementing an international capacity building programme on collaborative housing that tackles the affordability-integration-health nexus.

Several workshops with residents of Viennese Co-Housing projects were already held in 2022, focusing on the further development of individual models with a particular focus on the key topics of the research project: affordability, social integration, health and right to the city.

Within the Stakeholder Workshop on December 4th between 1.00 pm and 3.30 pm these results will be presented and discussed at different working groups.

Affordability. A fundamental question of every housing project is affordability: Who is excluded from the supply of high-quality housing and who is not? This question arises for Co-Housing projects just as it does for other residential buildings, but there are special aspects to consider here: Can Co-Housing projects be more affordable by outsourcing functions from private space to common spaces? Can innovative housing typologies contribute to affordability? And can the total costs of living be reduced through communal forms of housing or can the quality of life be increased at the same price?

Social integration. Many Co-Housing projects aim for a certain degree of diversity, but success is variable: while age, occupational and origin diversity can be achieved quite easily, income and educational diversity is more difficult. Which diversity strategies are promising, and what level and type of diversity should Co-Housing projects achieve?

Health. Since the Covid 19 crisis, the question of the importance of housing for health has been raised anew. Co-Housing projects have implemented different strategies to deal with the crisis during the lockdowns. What lessons can be learned about housing, the amenities of the houses and the surrounding open space, and the (self-)organisation of the Co-Housing projects?

Right to the City. Co-Housing projects are an attempt to realise a fulfilling, sustainable, self-determined and affordable way of living in urban space, quite in the sense of the right to the city, and they achieve this goal to varying degrees. What contribution do these projects make to holistic living in the city and to self-determination, and what development potential do they have in this regard?