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Anders nadenken over eigenaarschap
Short-term commodity or long-term solution?
Alternatives to Ownership
On 28 March 2024 the housing debate Alternatives to Ownership took place at The Independent School for the City in Rotterdam. This was the third debate in the series Anders werken aan wonen.
During the event, we discussed ways out of the housing crisis and how to diversify forms of home ownership in the future. What role do alternative forms of home ownership - organized around sharing or commons - can play in addressing the housing crisis? We discussed how different forms of ownership can be realized by taking a closer look at two examples from the field, accompanied by a contextual perspective. Researcher Thieme Hennis shared his vision for the development of Community Land Trusts in the Netherlands and architect Marieke Kums sketched various hybrid forms of cooperative housing. They both explored how these forms of ownership can grow from being an ideal to a lived reality, by addressing aspects of financing, legislation, and systems of organization. Federico Savini, Associate Professor at the University of Amsterdam, reflected on the future of housing from the perspective of de-growth in spatial planning. In a closing conversation moderated by Chris Luth, the speakers and the audience reflected on the question: What can be done now to broaden the available spectrum of different forms of home ownership?
Sustainable housing through de-growth and commons
Federico Savini opened his presentation by explaining that housing commons play a key role in addressing the current environmental and social crises. The term commons refers to land or resources belonging to or affecting the whole of a community, with the act of commoning being the act of shaping a community. As a scholar examining the future of housing from the perspective of de-growth in spatial planning, Savini sees degrowth as a concept that embodies a critique of this double crisis. Growth does not provide a guarantee for a better future; an increase in monetary transactions and better economy do not have to lead to a collective wellbeing of society. ecologieTo Savini the current housing crisis cannot be decoupled from environmental degradation. The way we currently build destroys both the environment and the lives of people. In his view the social pathway of de-growth, could allow us to realise two things: achieve a planned reduction of all unnecessary production and consumption, and an increase of essential services.
Housing is a difficult topic in the framework of de-growth. It is an essential need that in neoliberal capitalism has become the core of growth. ecologieIt is also the third most destructive sector in the current economy, next to mobility and energy production. Recent projections have shown that at the current rate of housing construction, we have already surpassed the first critical level of the CO2 targets as outlined in the Paris agreement.
Our future goal is to build sustainably for people and for planet. Housing commons realised through the principle of degrowth might allow us to achieve this difficult goal. The way forward is firstly to acknowledge housing as an essential need and not an economic commodity. Secondly, we need to produce housing forms that are fully ecological and regenerative, by slowing down its production but increasing access. Thirdly, we need to maximise urban densities and the quality of living. That would mean living smaller in well designed spaces. And finally, vormgevenwe need to treat housing not just as a place of sleeping, but as a space to create a different society.
The concept that often surfaces in relation to housing commons is that of autonomy. In our current society, there is a strong imperative to grow; our economic system is built in a way that urges us to buy houses. Savini pledges for a society that is free from the imperative of growth. Autonomy is a product of liberation from debt and valorisation. Hence, eigenaarschapthe process of commoning housing creates autonomy. Its success is only possible if the following contitions are met: property rights are collectivised, decisions are democratic, inclusivity is a target, and communities are formed based on shared values.
As an act of shaping a community, commoning offers an even broader spectrum of benefits. It teaches its participants to respect each other and collectivizes knowledge, so that it can be reproduced. But commoning also comes with challenges. In housing commons creating the right balance between autonomy, affordability, and accessibility is the biggest one of them. Ideally, all three should be realized. However, where that is not possible, it should not be disregarded, but rather seen as a spectrum of possibilities where a different range of needs is met.reflectieIf we approach autonomy and freedom as goals to work towards we might get closer to living comfortably within these challenges, eventually maybe even eliminating them altogether.
Land ownership through Community Land Trusts
Community Land Trust, or in short CLT, is a way to develop, use and govern land. It is a non-profit organisational model that allows to acquire, develop, and manage land on behalf of a community and act as a steward to safeguard it for future generations. To Thieme Hennis, eigenaarschapthe CLT is a good vehicle for building a long-term perspective to community-based ownership. Working for a social innovation company And The People, one of his missions is to make community land trust a common approach in how to develop, use and govern land in the Netherlands.
eigenaarschapCommunity land trusts are defined by three characteristics: democratic and inclusive governance, separate ownership of land and buildings, and mixed use. The CLT is as a model that represents different stakeholders and interests. It is based on a democratic and inclusive governance model that does not just involve the residents, but a broader community and parties with vested interests in the area, such local businesses or the municipality. Many CLTs have a tripartite structure where three groups hold one-third of decision-making power. The ownership of land and buildings is separated. The land that the CLT manages is owned by the CLT, where the ownership is collectively split up, always under the condition of permanent affordability. Lastly, the CLT is not restricted to housing. Mixed use is encouraged, such as shared spaces for recreation or commercial real estate.
Hennis points out the differences between a community land trust, a housing cooperative and a social housing association. In the CLT, the governance and ownership of the community determine a large number of factors. The CLT represents a broad community of stakeholders, whereas the housing cooperative represents a community of residents. The community-based approach of a CLT model also differs it from the mostly top-down approach of housing associations. The involvement of the residents also varies between these models, it is generally high in housing cooperatives and fluctuates in CLTs.
ecologieCommunity land trusts can play a role in offering an alternative to the current lack of affordable and sustainable housing. This is because, at all the stages of the development CLTs various owners stay involved throughout its entire life cycle. This incentive of long-term thinking is very much in line with the community land trust principles. The collective nature of CLTs also offers many opportunities for sharing space, mobility, and services. As a result, the material impact of the inhabitants is often lower than in traditional forms of housing, because not every household needs to own the same amenities.
Learning from our neighbours: German cooperative housing
Marieke Kums’ research project focuses on various hybrid forms of cooperative housing in Germany and The Netherlands. eigenaarschapGermany's collective forms of housing amount to 30% of the total housing stock, while in the Netherlands this is a mere 2%. Why is the difference between two neighbouring countries is so high? Kums noticed that in Germany many people buy a house a lot later in life. eigenaarschapIn the Netherlands, housing is seen much more as a financial investment. The urge to build financial capital often becomes a reason why housing cooperatives are not seen as a valid option for those who want to move along with the housing market. In the Netherlands it is much more common to buy and sell multiple houses in a lifetime, whereas in Germany one spends more time on saving up for an ideal house.
Kums and her research team are currently working on a publication The Architecture of Housing Co-ops: 15 Case Studies in DE/NL forthcoming in September 2024. It is an in-depth analysis of selected examples of cooperative housing including ten from Germany and five from the Netherlands. To give an insight into this elaborate research, she takes the audience through three examples: Spiegelfabrik in Dürth, Lynarstrasse in Berlin and Spreefeld in Berlin.
Spiegelfabrik in Fürth (2021) was initiated by a group of friends after one of them inherited an abandoned factory. Together they realised fifty-five apartments. From the start of the project, they shared the desire to live in a democratic community. All apartments were evenly distributed among an equal percentage of young people and families, middle-aged and older inhabitants. eigenaarschapEveryone living in the Spiegelfabrik shares the same rights to the cooperative. The appartments are very affordable, partially because the land of the former factory was offered to them for free, and because of the clean-cut design realised with a narrow selection of materials.
Lynarstrasse in Berlin (2019) located in Wedding, is the biggest housing building to date that has been realised in wood in Germany. It was initiated by an existing housing cooperative, but it was their first construction project, realised ‘from scratch’, not as form of retrofitting. vormgevenThey managed to buy a cheap plot of land next to the rail tracks, which asked for a creative urban planning approach. To ensure good quality of sound insulation, the living rooms were realised along the railway, while the private rooms were placed at the quieter, back side of the apartment block. There are 98 cluster living apartments in that block, where smaller, yet fully sufficient, private housing units are grouped around shared community spaces.
Spreefeld in Berlin (2014) was initiated by a group of architects fighting against the privatisation of the Spree riverbank. The building is a combination of cluster living and private apartments. eigenaarschapWhat sets this initiative apart, is that a number of the people who live there have been able to buy their apartment from the cooperative. In this way the building combines a cooperative and provately owned apartments. The private apartments at Spreefeld were taken out of the cooperative, but the inhabitants who bought them still live there.
According to Marieke Kums in the near future, not only are more cooperative housing initiatives in the Netherlands possible, they are already happening. citaatShe says that knowledge is the key to developing more of them, in particular exchanging knowledge on an international level. vormgevenAn ideal vision for the future would contain a diverse range of sustainable housing including a combination of social housing, cooperative living and other new innovative ways of housing. This will also positivity impact the diversity in housing architecture.
**Housing is a verb **
Housing is both a noun and a verb. It is an action that leads to consequences. We are currently experiencing the negative consequences of triggered by a combined environmental and social crisis. reflectieRealising new innovative and sustainable forms of housing requires effort, an open-minded approach, redefining how we experience our ways of living. Without political support this is not possible.A sustainable, affordable and diverse housing landscape can be possible, when we are willing to put our words into action and make housing a verb again.
Postgrowthcities.com
Thieme Hennis
Researcher and partner at social innovation enterprise And The People. He has a background in systems science and a PhD in self-organization as a pedagogical approach. He works on realizing regenerative living environments and making the Community Land Trust model prevalent in the Netherlands.
Marieke Kums
Founder of STUDIO MAKS, an architecture studio where she works primarily on public buildings and housing. She studied at MIT and TU Delft, where she graduated cum laude. Since 2021, she has been a professor at the Faculty of Architecture at Leibniz University Hannover, where she conducts research on affordable housing.
Federico Savini
Associate professor in environmental planning, institutions and politics. His main theme of research is degrowth and urbanization. He studies the relation between institutions, urban commons and the metabolism of cities. He is founder and coordinator of the Postgrowth Cities Coalition.
Chris Luth
Leads conversations: he facilitates processes related to vision, strategy and organizational development; he is a leadership trainer and coach; and he teaches at several architecture schools, including TU Delft. He was also an architect and curator for international projects at the former Netherlands Architecture Institute.