Do it together - Cohousing as a tool for finding better ways of living, a case study situated in Reykjavík, Iceland
(2019) AAHM10 20191Department of Architecture and Built Environment
- Abstract
- Living and acting in collectivity has been a substantial aspect of human development. Built examples of intentional collective living complexes are found in various cultures around the globe some of which are still in use today. With the arrival of the industrial revolution and the influx of huge numbers of workers into cities, the question of collective housing gained momentum. The later quest of feminists to liberate women from housework and the even later liberalization of societal values during the 1968s student protests prepared the ground for the first modern cohousing community which was created in Denmark in 1967.
Today the Icelandic capital Reykjavík is encouraging the search for new models of living together after having... (More) - Living and acting in collectivity has been a substantial aspect of human development. Built examples of intentional collective living complexes are found in various cultures around the globe some of which are still in use today. With the arrival of the industrial revolution and the influx of huge numbers of workers into cities, the question of collective housing gained momentum. The later quest of feminists to liberate women from housework and the even later liberalization of societal values during the 1968s student protests prepared the ground for the first modern cohousing community which was created in Denmark in 1967.
Today the Icelandic capital Reykjavík is encouraging the search for new models of living together after having grown by urban sprawl for decades. The city also has a substantial housing backlog making the construction of new units necessary. While the highly individualized and family-centered Icelandic society in general might not completely embrace collective living, there is certainly a number of individual and societal issues that cohousing could help with. These issues comprise the lack of public life, high living cost, social isolation of immigrants, regular traffic jams as well as high average energy consumption in the housing sector due to detached housing typologies. This thesis analyses both in research as in design how the above issues could be tackled with the tools of architecture in regards to housing and how experiences and reflections from cohousing could help with that.
Research on the topic was carried out in literature review, case study of existing cohousing projects and survey of local people. The design project was based on insights gained in the previous stages and aimed at achieving additional observations. As a housing design for a cohousing community can never be absolute without the input of the actual community, the present thesis rather focused on learning about important aspects when creating cohousing.
This master thesis is intended as an impulse for discussion about collective housing and how people want to live in Iceland in the near future. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8995279
- author
- Flender, Simon Joscha LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- AAHM10 20191
- year
- 2019
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- cohousing, shared housing, coliving, bofællesskabet, collective living, collective housing, reykjavik, reykjavík, iceland, architecture, design, social, social living, housing, affordable housing
- language
- English
- id
- 8995279
- date added to LUP
- 2019-09-18 09:15:56
- date last changed
- 2019-09-18 09:15:56
@misc{8995279,
abstract = {{Living and acting in collectivity has been a substantial aspect of human development. Built examples of intentional collective living complexes are found in various cultures around the globe some of which are still in use today. With the arrival of the industrial revolution and the influx of huge numbers of workers into cities, the question of collective housing gained momentum. The later quest of feminists to liberate women from housework and the even later liberalization of societal values during the 1968s student protests prepared the ground for the first modern cohousing community which was created in Denmark in 1967.
Today the Icelandic capital Reykjavík is encouraging the search for new models of living together after having grown by urban sprawl for decades. The city also has a substantial housing backlog making the construction of new units necessary. While the highly individualized and family-centered Icelandic society in general might not completely embrace collective living, there is certainly a number of individual and societal issues that cohousing could help with. These issues comprise the lack of public life, high living cost, social isolation of immigrants, regular traffic jams as well as high average energy consumption in the housing sector due to detached housing typologies. This thesis analyses both in research as in design how the above issues could be tackled with the tools of architecture in regards to housing and how experiences and reflections from cohousing could help with that.
Research on the topic was carried out in literature review, case study of existing cohousing projects and survey of local people. The design project was based on insights gained in the previous stages and aimed at achieving additional observations. As a housing design for a cohousing community can never be absolute without the input of the actual community, the present thesis rather focused on learning about important aspects when creating cohousing.
This master thesis is intended as an impulse for discussion about collective housing and how people want to live in Iceland in the near future.}},
author = {{Flender, Simon Joscha}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Do it together - Cohousing as a tool for finding better ways of living, a case study situated in Reykjavík, Iceland}},
year = {{2019}},
}