When the harbour settlement of Holmsund emerged the paternalistic milling society solely built itself around one cause, this generated a closed community consisting of a very uniform population. The impact is still present to the current day, homogenisation is causing individualisation and power is expressed by means of tangible possessions. Holmsunds’ door is closed, this BA proposal wish to unlock the door and leave it open. In order to accomplish the previously stated the strategic site of intervention is where one is the most responsive, where the daily life happens, where one lives. Modernity and digitalization generates a society where services are moving from physical spaces in the public to rather taking place within the home, thus putting a greater emphasis on the way we live. Not to mention the amount of time and value we invest in living during our lives, constantly craving to settle, to connect our bodies to one physical space. On that account housing will acts as the architectural engine for societal change and serves as the base for this project. This BA project proposes a housing project where the concept of sharing acts as the key theme. The idea suggests an apartment building which emphasizes the connection with its surroundings by combining public and private functions in a balanced transition and thus generating connections between various people. In more specific terms the building is defined through the means of sharing in various scales by: mixing different users, sharing activities in communal spaces and sharing resources through a reusing facility.

Master thesis project presents Havířov, the city full of interesting things. It is the youngest city in the Czech Republic, built on a green meadow at Silesian Region. Architecture of Havířov is uniform and it was strongly influenced by Socialist realism. Town is located on the plane, surrounded by water tanks and White Carpathian Mountains. There are the cleanest air conditions from the whole surrounding area. The aim of the project was to find new idea and remedy the shortcomings of the city. The project addresses the issue of absence of typical picturesque square with stores in the city centre. Part of the objective is also dealing with the issue of rapidly aging city with a lot of inhabitants. This problem is based on the fact that in the 50s of the 20th century generation of young people at the same age were coming to Havířov due to possibility of work in the mines and ironworks.

My project is a cohousing community in Berlin. Cohousing is an intentional community of private homes clustered around a shared space. In my project, I divided the shared place into two parts, indoor communal and outdoor communal. For indoor communal, I focus on creating communal halls for people living in community. For outdoor communal, I focus on creating multiple courtyards with different characteristics.

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A constellation of challenges, including changing family types and shrinking household size, housing affordability, and ecological impact, can be addressed through a different approach to private dwelling. These are widespread challenges, but the challenges of affordability and changing demographics are acutely present in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, making it a fertile site to explore these issues. The thesis design addresses this constellation of challenges by adding layers of shared space to individual dwellings. The design draws from cohousing: common houses with shared facilities, parking at the periphery, massing the buildings around pedestrian circulation, and creating shared outdoor spaces. Cohousing is hybridized with a “big house” idea which puts dwellings for three to five families in a single building, where the main rooms are shared by all. Through these features the design encourages a sense of community, while taking advantage of shared facilities to improve affordability and reduce environmental impact.

Considering current urban challenges within the United States, the stewardship of massive, unsustainable living and consumption, collaborative cohousing communities appear to hold substantial potential as agents of change delivering sustainable-oriented lifestyles. This research examines the internal drives that intervene in adopting environmentally friendly habits and explores how they are facilitated inside this type of residence. In order to observe the benefits and limitations of this type of degrowth-oriented housing, this study covers the transformative learning experiences within cohousing residents through the conduction of semi-structured interviews as the primary method. For this research, two cohousing communities have been selected in the states of Vermont and Iowa.  Throughout the study, different drives associated with the attainment of sustainable environments have been identified. Among them, we find drives connected to the built space and the social organisation of the communities. Emphasis is also given to the internal strategies by which these drives intervene in the materialisation of environmentally friendly lifestyles. The study points out those drives that deem cohousing a beneficial tool to challenge existing economic norms and social paradigms. This study can serve as the basis for further research exploring the possibilities of considering the depicted drives as guiding models for sustainable living among more traditional forms of housing.

The population of Earth is increasing vastly fast which has a great impact on all the large cities around the world. The society of today is facing new problems each day and the housing sector is one of them, due to the unbalanced situation of demand and supply. During the same time, the term of sharing economy has established its ground in people’s lives as they have realized the benefits of using instead of possessing when it comes to products and services. Sweden is one of all the markets with both this increasing housing problem and increasing trend of sharing economy. The old, but today rising housing form of shared accommodation has been identified by some entrepreneurs as a possible solution for this unbalanced situation. However, sharing accommodation, or rather coliving is an emerging term that has spread widely through the world’s housing market the last years and can be seen in many different configurations depending on its location and purpose. This study aims to establish an understanding of what coliving is in terms of different key aspects in today’s society in order to formulate a conceptual definition of the emerging term. This has been done by an inductive approach of a qualitative method based on an interview study and previous literature. The empirical findings indicate that coliving relates to five key dimensions, eight key themes and one key sub theme. These aspects need to be related and taken into account during the development process of a coliving project. The identified aspects and the formulated conceptual definition bridge the academic gap as they build up the foundation of what coliving is in today’s society. Hence, contributes with valuable information for the topics of sustainability, ethics and urban development. / I takt med att jordens befolkning ökar möter världens större städer allt mer utmaningar. Var dag ställs våra samhällen inför nya svårigheter där bostadsbranschen är en av de utsatta med anledning av dess obalanserade situation av utbud och efterfrågan. Samtidigt har det nya begreppet delningsekonomi börjat etablera sig i människans liv, där fördelarna med att använda istället för att äga har uppfattats allt mer. Sverige är en av alla marknader som idag är starkt påverkade av både ett ökat bostadsproblem och en ökad trend av delningsekonomi. Den gamla, men idag växande bostadsformen av delat boende har blivit identifierad av ett antal entreprenörer som en möjlig lösning till denna obalanserade situation. Delat boende, eller snarare coliving är en växande term som de senaste åren har spridits kraftigt över världens bostadsmarknad och beroende på plats och avsikt kan ses i ett antal olika konfigurationer. Studien syftar på att etablera en förståelse av vad coliving är i termer av nyckelfaktorer för dagens samhälle för att formulera en konceptuell definition. Detta har möjliggjorts genom ett induktivt tillvägagångssätt av en kvalitativ metod baserad på en studie av intervjuer och tidigare litteratur. Den empiriska studien indikerar på att coliving skildras genom fem nyckeldimensioner, åtta nyckelteman och ett nyckeldeltema som bör relateras och tas i beaktning för att erhålla ett framgångsrikt coliving-boende. De identifierade faktorerna och den formulerade konceptuella definitionen av coliving fyller det akademiska gap vi idag ser genom att de verkar som en grund för vad coliving är i dagens samhälle. Därigenom bidrar de med värdefull information inom områden som hållbarhet, etik och stadsutveckling.

Widespread concern over recent changes in American civic life has spawned arguments in a range of disciplines about the importance of social capital, citizen civic capacity and deliberative democratic engagement in supporting the development of engaged citizens, as well as supporting a democracy that is effective, publicly-minded and accountable. This study contributes to this literature by empirically investigating the potential for a specific type of place-based community development called "cohousing" to enhance the quantity and quality of resident civic engagement. Cohousing neighborhoods marry elements of social contact design with democratic self-governance and intentional social practices designed to build trust and cohesion among neighbors. In addition to investigating civic engagement in cohousing, this study investigates the degree to which U.S. cohousing neighborhoods build social capital, develop residents' democratic capacities and provide a platform for deliberative democratic practice. The results of the study indicate extraordinarily high levels of civic engagement by U.S. cohousing residents as compared to both the general population and to individuals with similar educational, income and racial characteristics. A multiple-case analysis of three neighborhoods, selected for positive deviance in civic engagement levels, were found to possess high levels of trust, social cohesion and norms of reciprocity. Case community residents were also found to be developing a range of democratic capacities, individually and collectively, particularly through engagement in community self-governance via structures of distributed leadership and the use of consensus-based, community decision-making processes. This study suggests that self-governing, communities of place, such as cohousing neighborhoods may represent a promising new avenue for enhanced citizen-engagement at the grassroots-community level. These neighborhoods also represent an excellent arena for future investigation into conditions, necessary and sufficient, to catalyze increased democratic capacity and civic engagement on the part of citizens. / Ph. D.

This thesis examines the relationship between a cohousing community and a related ministry center in a mid-Atlantic state that seek to encourage an environment for people—with and without disabilities—to live together while fostering the individuality and autonomy among members of both groups. This thesis explores how these two organizations attempt to create space for individuals with disabilities to exercise personal agency and independence, as well as encourage mutual relationship building between persons with and without disabilities. The implications of their partnership were the central focus of this inquiry. The analysis investigates how the physical structures, locations, and accessibility of formal and informal spaces for people with and without disabilities residing in the cohousing community create opportunities for their visibility and exercise of agency. It also outlines the structure and aims of the nonprofit that collaborates with the cohousing community, as those relate to agential possibility, including the role of personal development through a faith-based identity. Overall, the thesis employs Iris Marion Young's framework for inclusive democracy to explore the effects of the combined efforts of these two entities for the perceived agency and autonomy of a sample of residents with disabilities participating in both (Young 1990, 2000). In particular, this analysis explores the central tenets of the two nonprofits' organizational cultures as those relate to political agency, by sharing the findings of semi-structured interviews with residents, staff, and board members about their experiences as a part of each institution. The analysis also details the primary features of the physical environments each FBO has created and their implications for the perceived agency of a sample of those residents with disabilities involved with both nonprofit organizations. It offers insight into the importance of identity, equal inclusivity, and opportunities for expression in formal and informal settings for the encouragement of agential possibility. The results of this study indicate that the relationship between the nonprofit and cohousing community has allowed individuals with and without disabilities the opportunity to take ownership of their friendships and relationships, including their relationship with God. This suggests that the role of faith in this community provides individuals with disabilities a chance to express agency over their personal faith life as well as their goals and ambitions. Individuals without disabilities in this community encourage this personal agency because of their own definition of personhood as understood through Christian faith. This inquiry was based on 12 semi-structured interviews with staff, governing board members and participants involved with each entity investigated as well as review of their websites and relevant documents concerning their visions, missions and goals. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning / The purpose of the research was to explore the relationship between a faith based day programming center for persons with disabilities and a related cohousing community, and how these two entities provided individuals with varying degrees of disabilities with opportunities to express personal agency and personal development. This inquiry was based on 12 semi-structured interviews with staff, participants, and governing board members as well as a review of these organizations’ documents concerning visions, missions, and goals. The results of this research indicate that these communities provide individuals with disabilities a chance to see themselves as important to society and ultimately to God. Opportunities for these experiences, according to participants in this study, stem from a place of Christian faith.

Paris’ population, throughout its modern history has sculpted a unique urban culture for itself. An ambiguous realm between the intimate and the public has evolved as a result of the political and economic influences experienced by the residents and immigrants in this city. Within this realm there is a typology and morphology that has a unique capacity to support both intimacy and privacy. This realm has the capacity to extend and restore a dimension of public space and experience that was eroded by the modern rushing stream. The morphology, while extending the public also frames the thresholds that are needed to maintain a sense of private and intimate space. My interest in historical typologies and the reuse of existing buildings for contemporary living led me to choose a vacant building in Paris as the site for a rehabilitation project. I began this project with a historical study of Paris. The trends in Paris’ residential architecture and urban development from 1528 to present day coupled with my experiences of living and working there, made up the background for this thesis. There was one dialectical theme that continually recurred throughout my research: The desire and necessity of public life contrasted by the yearning to retreat and protect the intimate, private life. The recognition of this theme helped me to form a better understanding of the individuals that make up the collective population of Paris and how their perceptions of personal space require certain thresholds to maintain their sense of comfort and security. The project that resulted was an attempt to mediate the distinct perceptions of this dialectic. The rehabilitation of the derelict building and the projected possibilities for rest of its block were meant to reconcile the display and retreat that characterized the renaissance period with the transparency that was introduced by modernity into Paris’ city centre in the 19th and 20th centuries.