Save by Sharing

Saving by SharingCollective Housing for Sustainable Lifestylesby Prof. Emer. Dick Urban Vestbro, KTH, Stockholm; March2010

Presentation based on• Research on cohousing 1964 - today

• Teaching of house planning and design

• Experience as an activist, chairman of Swedish association Cohousing NOW

ConceptsCohousing (Durrett & McCa-

mant, based on DK exp.)

Collaborative housing (Fromm)

Collective housing (incl. servi-

ces through employed staff)

Communes (without individual

apartments)

Intentional Communities

(Eco-villages)

(Cooperative housing)

Aims• Simplify everyday life, esp.

to combine family life and job (gender equality)

• Demand for moderate sense of community

• Access to common spaces and facilities such as guest rooms, club rooms , work-shops , tools etc

• Promote sustainable lifestyles

Concepts and Aims

Robert Owen (GB)

Charles Fourier (F)

Service

housing

(elderly)

Apartment

hotels (USA)

Central kit-

chen h.

Godin’s fami-

listère (F)

Oneida

Shakers

Collective

housing

(Sovjet)

Kibbutzim Self-work

model

Smaller

CommunesEco-villages

Senior

housing

Historical development of communal living ideas

Bofælleskab

(DK)

1800 1900 2000

Blue = rational society; Red = ideal life; Green = ecological or other goals

Collective

housing (SE)

Family hotels

2nd half

of life m.

Cohousing

communities

How much can be saved by sharing?

• 15 households abstaining 10% of normal private space allows access to 120 sqm common space

• 40 households abstaining 10% of normal private space allows access to 320 sqm common space

• Access to common spaces may motivate fewer private rooms

• Possible to share cars, expen-sive tools, workshops, compost, newspaper subscriptions, library etc.

The Stolplyckan model, Linköping

• 184 apartments, divided into staircase units

• 10% reduction of apts

• 2000 sqm common spaces

• Municipal service as a base (care of children, elderly)

• Own cooking in evenings

Collective housing - for sustainable lifestyles

Composting, Phagen

Cultivation, Prästgårdshagen

Alotments gardens, Fristad

Ecological food, Tullstugan

The ’commons’ dilemma’: as an individual

it feels meaningless to do something for the

environment, but as a collective it may be

enjoyable and meaningful

In collective housing one may share news paper subscriptions, expensive tools, guest rooms, laser writers, books, children’s clothes, toys etc.

Things residents can do together

Breakfast club, study circle, parents’ café, culti-

vation, subscription to papers, kate flying, disco,

mascerade, karaoke, children’s parties, movies,

playing games, art work, music, photo, carpen-

try, ceramics, badminton, indoor bandy, sauna,

weaving, composting, pancake parties, billard,

flea markets, barbecues, repair sessions, book

clubs, poetry evening, excursions.

Textile work, Fristad Weaving, Fristad

Oiling furniture, Tullstugan

Carpentry, Phagen

Cleaning stairs, Phagen

Which categories prefer collective living?

Earlier: well educated people

born in the 1940s, working in pub-

lic sector, women, families with

children, ’postmaterialists’

Today: as above but more mixed,

not as ideological, single mothers,

elderly. Anti-consumerists?

Garden party, Blenda, Uppsala

Sign board reflects alternative movement ideas

Resident meeting, Prästgårdshagen, Stockholm

Individualism replacing kinship ties and need for company?• 75% one& two person households today

• Increase of small households continues

• Does individualism help people to live alone?

• Do people get enough company from work, associations,

eating out, visiting friends?

Living alone reduces

health and wellbeing

“Household explosion”

Theory of gender and communal space

Private cells + monumen-tal public places

Patriarchal view: separate functions, big gestures, abstract forms

Semiprivate & communal spaces for local social life & crime prevention

From “The New Everyday Life - ways and means”, 1991 & Oscar Newman: ’Defensible Space’ 1974

In-between level- Local tasks

- Local organisation

- Local economy

Female view: local quali-ties, human scale inte-grated functions