2009 Studies on Building Cooperatives in Vienna

Two studies on Building Cooperatives in Vienna (Potentials and framework; legal aspects, guideline, plot awarding), commissioned by the Viennese Department of Housing Research (MA 50), with Maja Lorbek, Aleksandra Ptaszyńska (SORA), Daniela Wittinger (SORA).

The studies address building cooperatives, (co-)initiated and co-designed by their future inhabitants. Central for the understanding of such projects is the amount of participation that inhabitants have in the development of their future housing surroundings, their apartments and their houses with common areas and open spaces. That means the projects have to be based on collaborative participation. Although today building cooperatives are common in many German cities, these projects can’t be transferred directly to the Austrian situation. But still, there are many common features so that the model can also be successful in Austria and Vienna when the conditions are conducive. This research project was based on the objective of Vienna’s housing department to support building cooperatives in the future.

The first study (Final Report 1: Assessment of Potential and Conditions), carried out together with Maja Lorbek, Aleksandra Ptaszyńska (SORA) and Daniela Wittinger (SORA), deals with potentials and problems of building cooperatives in Vienna. Besides an estimation of the size of the target group, the most important problems of building cooperatives in Vienna, recommendations for a supporting policy and for zoning were central topics.

The second study (Final Report 2: Legal Aspects, Manual, Building Lot Tendering) contains proposals for a manual and a building lot tendering procedure for building cooperatives. The studies are based on research about the situation in several German cities (Hamburg, Munich, Berlin, Tübingen, Freiburg) which are described in the second study.