Financing the Cooperative City

»Rotaprint archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ment. There is no prof­it to be made here«—so a ban­ner of the ExRo­taprint ini­tia­tive from 2007. The rea­son: a fight of the non-prof­it GmbH ExRo­taprint for the rights of use of land and build­ings that has been going on for years, repeat­ed­ly bro­ken promis­es and dubi­ous nego­ti­a­tions between the own­er of the land—the Liegen­schafts­fond Berlin—and inter­na­tion­al real estate com­pa­nies despite already promised and almost com­plet­ed han­dover. After long nego­ti­a­tions and mas­sive resis­tance the vic­to­ry comes for the gGmbH. With the help of Stiftung trias and Stiftung Edith Mary­on, the site is pur­chased in late sum­mer 2007 and a 99-year ground lease agree­ment is signed with ExRo­taprint gGmbH. This makes the gGmbH the own­er of the build­ings and sole­ly respon­si­ble for the project devel­op­ment. The pos­si­ble spec­u­la­tive spi­ral has been inter­rupt­ed. Since then, the entire com­plex has been man­aged and run accord­ing to non-prof­it prin­ci­ples with the aim of secur­ing het­ero­ge­neous uses and afford­able rents in the long term. The project is described as a “social sculp­ture”, which is at the same time firm­ly anchored in the neigh­bor­hood and active­ly engaged in urban the­o­ry dis­course in order to con­tin­u­ous­ly expand the basis of its work. © Mar­tin Eberle

The book and action research project Fund­ing the Coop­er­a­tive City. Com­mu­ni­ty Finance and the Econ­o­my of Civic Spaces describes numer­ous case stud­ies from across Europe, which tell of how local com­mu­ni­ty finance can be set up. A wide vari­ety of groups that have devel­oped new mod­els for devel­op­ing and oper­at­ing non-com­mer­cial spaces for their neigh­bor­hoods are pre­sent­ed and dis­cussed. None of this is easy, as many inter­views and dis­cus­sion notes reveal. But it is pos­si­ble: through the for­ma­tion of sol­i­dar­i­ty net­works, neigh­bor­ly com­mit­ment, a will­ing­ness to exper­i­ment, and admin­is­tra­tive and often finan­cial sup­port from the respec­tive communities.


Project

Open Her­itage


Actors

Lev­ente Polyák, Daniela Pat­ti, founders, Eutropi­an GmbH; Yil­maz Vuru­cu, Baha­nur Nasya, Xsen­trikarts, Eutropi­an; Andrea Giu­liano, Jorge Mos­quera, Sophie Bod, Ste­fano Pat­ti, Eleono­ra Rugiero, Julia Baudi­er, Eutropi­an team


Year

Since 2018


Loca­tions

Var­i­ous

Färgfab­riken is an exhi­bi­tion space for art, archi­tec­ture and urban plan­ning in Stock­holm, which has exist­ed since 1995 and is the result of a col­lab­o­ra­tion between the Asso­ci­a­tion of Swedish Archi­tects (Sven­s­ka Arkitek­ters Riks­för­bund), Alcro-Beck­ers, ColArt and a group of artists and inde­pen­dent archi­tects. © Yil­maz Vuru­cu, xsentrikarts
Casci­na Roc­cafran­ca, Turin. The for­mer farm was pur­chased with the help of Euro­pean funds and trans­formed into a mul­ti­func­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter, man­aged by both pub­lic and civ­il soci­ety actors. What makes this insti­tu­tion spe­cial is the close col­lab­o­ra­tion that has devel­oped between the munic­i­pal­i­ty of Turin and mem­bers of the non-prof­it asso­ci­a­tions and groups rep­re­sent­ed in Casci­na. © Casci­na Roccafranca
Stará Tržni­ca, Bratisla­va. The Old Mar­ket Hall in the cen­ter of Bratisla­va had stood emp­ty for years. This changed in 2013, when a non-prof­it civ­il soci­ety asso­ci­a­tion took over the build­ing from the munic­i­pal­i­ty. Togeth­er with exter­nal experts, a mul­ti-func­tion­al pro­gram was devel­oped for the hall. Today, in addi­tion to a week­ly mar­ket, cul­tur­al events, con­certs and oth­er events are also held here, where­by the prof­its do not go into the pock­ets of the oper­a­tors, but into the ren­o­va­tion and preser­va­tion of the build­ing. © Boris Nemeth
ExRo­taprint © Eutropian

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A Co-Financed Bridge Generates New Impulses

© Annette Behrens

Twen­ty years ago, the archi­tec­ture office ZUS moved into an anony­mous Schieblock in Rot­ter­dam as an anti-squat­ter. At that time, how­ev­er, the areas sur­round­ing this block were cut up and sep­a­rat­ed by roads and rail­way lines. This is how the idea of a bridge was born. The hope: new impuls­es and uses for emp­ty build­ings and urban waste­lands. Inter­est­ing­ly, the bridge brought peo­ple togeth­er even before it exist­ed. Via an inter­net plat­form, peo­ple were able to pur­chase wood­en plank­ing for the future bridge, which was ful­ly opened in 2015. Oth­er aspects of the project were strong­ly sup­port­ed by the munic­i­pal­i­ty of Rot­ter­dam: Work and office space, restau­rants, cafés, and green spaces. Since then, there has been a lot of talk about the quarter’s new vital­i­ty but also about the con­se­quences of upgrad­ing and exclusivity.


Project

Luchtsin­gel


Actors

Zones Urbaines Sen­si­ble (ZUS), ini­tia­tive, plan­ning, archi­tec­ture; approx. 8,000 crowd­fund­ing par­tic­i­pants, co-financ­ing; Rot­ter­dam City Coun­cil, co-financ­ing and organization


Year

Since 2011


Loca­tion

Rot­ter­dam, Netherlands

The entire pedes­tri­an bridge is paint­ed in sig­nal yel­low, for Kris­t­ian Kore­man of ZUS the col­or of a tem­po­rary bridge. But this is no longer the bridge—here in the Schiekade cross­ing. Once emp­ty office build­ings like the Schieblock are now filled with uses: Archi­tec­tur­al firms, cre­ative indus­tries, social uses and a depart­ment store in which Rot­ter­dam prod­ucts are sold have set­tled here. © Ossip van Duivenbode
The first con­struc­tion phase of the Luchtsin­gel was financed by the sale of indi­vid­ual wood­en slats, which were offered for sale for 25 Euros each. 17,000 boards were sold in this way. © Ossip van Duivenbode
Luchtsin­gel (Luft­gracht) is the name of a 390-meter-long wood­en bridge that the ini­tia­tors describe as a cat­a­lyst for eco­nom­ic growth—not least because it con­nects dis­tricts in the north of Rot­ter­dam that were pre­vi­ous­ly sep­a­rat­ed by rail­road tracks with the city cen­ter. Archi­tect Elma van Box­el and archi­tect Kris­t­ian Kore­man from the Zones Urbaines Sen­si­bles (ZUS) office ini­ti­at­ed a crowd­fund­ing cam­paign in 2012 to raise funds for the bridge. © Ossip van Duivenbode
© Ossip van Duivenbode

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This Is Our House!

Hous­ing, just like land, must not be a commodity—this is the goal of the Miet­shäuser Syn­dikat in a nut­shell. Since its offi­cial foun­da­tion in Freiburg in 1993, it has devel­oped and pro­mot­ed self-orga­nized hous­ing projects. The unique fea­ture of the syn­di­cate is that land and build­ings are per­ma­nent­ly decom­mod­i­fied. This means that the orga­ni­za­tion, togeth­er with the ten­ants of a house, buys the prop­er­ty and the land, thus dis­solv­ing tra­di­tion­al own­er­ship struc­tures or oth­er depen­den­cies. By with­draw­ing build­ings and the land they stand on from the real estate mar­ket, the syn­di­cate posi­tions itself explic­it­ly against spec­u­la­tion and prof­it. Today, around 160 projects in Ger­many, the Nether­lands, and Aus­tria exist under the syndicate’s umbrel­la, mak­ing long-term afford­able res­i­den­tial, work­ing, and liv­ing spaces a reality.


Project

Miet­shäuser Syndikat


Actors

Miet­shäuser Syn­dikat Vere­in, indi­vid­u­als, house asso­ci­a­tions, groups, Miet­shäuser Syn­dikat GmbH


Year

Since 1992


Loca­tion

Ger­many

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A Different Kind of City Kitchen

The kitchen of Urban Space 100 finances a vari­ety of urban projects ini­ti­at­ed by civ­il soci­ety, such as the ren­o­va­tion of cul­tur­al her­itage, street music days, com­put­er work­shops for chil­dren or recy­cling sta­tions for plas­tics. © Teple Misto

When Yuriy Fylyuk and his friends moved from Kyiv to Ivano-Frankivsk in the sum­mer of 2008, they found a place with scarci­ties of all sorts. Out of this, Teple Mis­to or Warm City emerged—a net­work that today includes around six­ty local com­pa­nies. A restau­rant became one of the plat­forms for the group’s activ­i­ties and serves as a place for meet­ing as well as exchange. One hun­dred peo­ple par­tic­i­pate as co-financiers in the Urban Space 100 project. Since 2015, parts of the restaurant’s prof­its have gone into a pot that finances and sup­ports ini­tia­tives, small and larg­er projects. The mon­ey col­lect­ed in this way has already been used to restore his­toric build­ing entrances, pro­cure com­put­ers for med­ical facil­i­ties, and orga­nize sport­ing events and festivals.


Project

Urban Space 100


Actors

Yuriy Fylyuk and Wifty-two oth­er busi­ness­men, found­ing Teple Mis­to; Yuriy Fylyuk and six friends, devel­op­ing the idea of Urban Space 100; Teple Mis­to, man­ag­ing Pro­stir 100; 100 co-founders, Winanc­ing Pro­stir 100; Pro­stir 100 (NGO), allo­cat­ing grants; Restoran 100, restau­rant oper­a­tor; 23 Restoran, restau­rant man­age­ment company


Year

Since 2014, restau­rant opening


Loca­tion

Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine

The Urban Space 100 at 19 Mykhaila Hru­shevsko­ho Street in Ivano-Frankivsk—a com­bi­na­tion of restau­rant, radio sta­tion and com­mu­ni­ty center—has been around since 2014. The idea for this place was gen­er­at­ed by the Teple Mis­to Plat­form, which was respon­si­ble for the pub­lic rela­tions work for the project and was also look­ing for the founders: 100 peo­ple, all of whom want­ed to play an active role in shap­ing their liv­ing envi­ron­ment. They do this by invest­ing 80% of the prof­its from the restau­rant in social­ly com­mit­ted and non-prof­it projects. On four dates a year, the mem­bers select projects that should be fur­ther sup­port­ed. © Teple Misto
© Ste­fan Marx

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Who Builds Our Cities?

The work­ing con­di­tions of con­struc­tion work­ers are poten­tial­ly life-threat­en­ing when han­dling heavy machin­ery at dizzy­ing heights. Their work­ing days are long; their employ­ment con­tracts, if any, are often inad­e­quate. But the per­son­al sto­ries depict­ed in the films of Mar­ty­na Jan­ic­ka and Michal Gdak do not pil­lo­ry the employ­ers. Instead, they ask, as Jan­ic­ka says, whether fair trade is even fea­si­ble in this field—and if so, what exact­ly could be. 5‑channel film instal­la­tion, Sand (3.11 min), Con­crete (6.03 min), Plas­ters, (3.33 min), Height (3.24 min), Love (2.16 min), 2016 © Fair Building

The Fair Build­ing project is about pre­cise­ly those who are often for­got­ten when archi­tects or pub­lic fig­ures talk about spec­tac­u­lar new con­struc­tions or large-scale urban plan­ning. In con­trast to the film indus­try, where every role, no mat­ter how small, is list­ed in the cred­it roll, archi­tec­ture tends to keep a low pro­file when it comes to the work and the work­ers whose labor allows for build­ings to emerge: work­ers who are employed in pre­car­i­ous con­di­tions, work­ers who tem­porar­i­ly live far from home in inhos­pitable places, work­ers who ply their trade on unse­cured build­ing sites, and work­ers who toil away for days and weeks that are too long. These are the peo­ple who play the lead here.


Project

Fair Build­ing


Actors

Domini­ka Jan­ic­ka, cura­tor; Mar­ty­na Jan­ic­ka, Michal‚ Gdak, con­trib­u­tors; Han­na Wrob­lews­ka, com­mis­sion; Zacheta — Nation­al Gallery of Art, organizationion


Year

2016


Loca­tion

Poland

5‑channel film instal­la­tion, Sand (3.11 min), Con­crete (6.03 min), Plas­ters, (3.33 min), Height (3.24 min), Love (2.16 min), 2016 © Fair Building
5‑channel film instal­la­tion, Sand (3.11 min), Con­crete (6.03 min), Plas­ters, (3.33 min), Height (3.24 min), Love (2.16 min), 2016 © Fair Building
5‑channel film instal­la­tion, Sand (3.11 min), Con­crete (6.03 min), Plas­ters, (3.33 min), Height (3.24 min), Love (2.16 min), 2016 © Fair Building

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A Quarter Taking Matters Into Its Own Hands

From 1969 to 1971 the pho­tog­ra­ph­er Nick Hedges doc­u­ment­ed life in Liv­er­pool. Nick was com­mis­sioned by the char­i­ty Shel­ter to trav­el through Eng­land and Scot­land and por­tray the lives of fam­i­lies liv­ing in slums and mis­ery. Here you can see young res­i­dents of Liv­er­pool walk­ing past an elec­tion poster in Gran­by Street. © Nick Hedges

In the 1980s, Tox­teth is the set­ting for vio­lent class strug­gles. Peo­ple move to oth­er parts of Liv­er­pool; many of the Vic­to­ri­an row hous­es fall into dis­re­pair. As a result, a group becomes active in the neigh­bor­hood. They clean up, plant flower beds, paint win­dows, and estab­lish a mar­ket. A Com­mu­ni­ty Land Trust is set up. The aim: to cre­ate afford­able hous­ing that is owned by the peo­ple from the neigh­bor­hood. The group con­vinces the munic­i­pal­i­ty not to demol­ish the hous­es. Lat­er, the archi­tec­ture col­lec­tive Assem­ble comes on board and devel­ops a plan for the area. Although the work is still unfin­ished and many hous­es are still in need of fur­ther atten­tion, the people’s goal of tak­ing the future of their area into their own hands has been achieved for the time being.


Project

Gran­by Four Streets Redevelopment


Actors

Gran­by Four Streets CLT; Steve Biko Hous­ing Asso­ci­a­tion, sup­port­ing body; Ann O’Byrne, sup­port­er, for­mer Liv­er­pool City Coun­cil Deputy May­or and Cab­i­net Mem­ber for Hous­ing; Assem­ble, archi­tec­ture office


Year

Since 2011


Loca­tion

Liv­er­pool, Great Britain 

Assem­ble worked with the Gran­by Four Streets Com­mu­ni­ty Land Trust (CLT) to ren­o­vate 10 ruinous town hous­es on Cairns St. in Tox­teth. © Lewis Jones
© Lewis Jones
With the demo­li­tion of all but four of Granby’s streets, a once thriv­ing com­mu­ni­ty was dis­persed and the remain­ing Gran­by Four Streets were sparse­ly pop­u­lat­ed. Aer­i­al view of the demo­li­tion area of Gran­by Four Streets. Archive image © Assemble
The first Gran­by Work­shop prod­uct line was designed for homes in need of ren­o­va­tion and includ­ed bath­room tiles, door han­dles and fire­places. On dis­play here is a col­lec­tion of hand­made ceram­ic bot­tles, cups and glass­es for every­day use, based on local mate­ri­als. The com­pa­ny con­tin­ues to have a strong com­mu­ni­ty focus—operating from its premis­es on Gran­by Street, par­tic­i­pat­ing in the month­ly com­mu­ni­ty mar­ket and con­tin­u­ing to con­tribute to the ongo­ing local ren­o­va­tions. © Lewis Jones

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