Typologies for Collective Living

In Switzerland, cooperative housing is 100 to 120 years old. It isn't just about cheap living: it carries deep ideological layers that value the collective over the individual. In the early 1990s, a real estate crisis brought on a resurgence of alternative forms of living, and for the first time these were centered in the city.

Kraftwerk1. The best known was Kraftwerk1, initiated by Andreas Hofer in Zurich: a permanent live-work community for 700 people on the grounds of a former Sulzer-Escher Wyss factory. An alternative to the private housing market, it was a collective, self-organized, environmentally and economically sustainable community, and a new model and typology for affordable housing, one that let the building adapt throughout its life.

Kalkbreite. During its research phase, Zimmerfrei visited the Kalkbreite cooperative in Zurich, designed by Müller Sigrist. It is built on top of a tram depot, a site ordinary investors found too risky, which left it open to other ways of investing. Kalkbreite went to the city with a proposal: more than a tram depot, a place to live. It offers cluster flats, with a shared common room and large kitchen and private rooms with small kitchens and bathrooms, which take less space than ordinary flats but give more privacy.

Zimmerfrei used Kraftwerk1's model and Habitat's resources to draw people to the project.

Once some 50 members had joined, the group organized workshops on the basic questions of the program. How much individual space was needed? How much common space? How would circulation be organized? How many flats could fit within the footprint?

They held four workshops over three to four months and kept to a strict timeline. The approach was driven by results rather than process: the workshops were direct, task-oriented and built on members' input. Efficiency was a byproduct. With so many factors involved, some flexibility was necessary, but the goal was always to define an architectural program.

With the programming phase complete, Zimmerfrei launched a design competition in March 2014. Inviting well-known architects to the jury gave the project architectural legitimacy and drew stronger entries. The finalists were chosen that fall, and an exhibition of their work built public momentum for financial support. In the winter of 2014, Buchner Bründler were chosen as the winners.

The final design mixes cluster apartments (for a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 14 people) with studios and one- to seven-bedroom flats. Each unit has a minimum number of residents, so households move to a different apartment as families grow up and move out.

The resurgence of co-housing addresses a changing social climate, one that puts resource consumption, the efficient use of space and new ways of living first. By involving future residents in the earliest stages of design, these projects think holistically about how architecture shapes the daily lives of city dwellers. Zimmerfrei, Kalkbreite and Kraftwerk1 show the potential of working creatively within the cracks of housing bureaucracy.

The instability of our time makes it easy to dream of a better world. When society doesn't meet our needs, we invent. For the past century, individuals and architects have pursued visionary ideas to improve daily life. The 20th century was an era of idealism, but the failures of its housing market may have given birth to a new era of pragmatism, with room for new economic models and spatial typologies to repair the dislocation caused by market-driven development.