I recently went to Berlin to visit several shared-living projects and spaces, including one co-housing and two co-living spaces. I also spoke with the founder of a rural ‘workation retreat place.’ This post provides a summary of my visits and analyzes each project against three critical categories which I am most concerned with: economic, environmental sustainability practices, and social/community strength.
Summary of Visits
Project Name: Spreefeld
City: Berlin
Mission: To harness its location’s unique potential to create a socially just, economically stable, and environmentally responsible urban building block.
About: Experiment of cooperative self-organization and direct citizens’ participation. Values: affordability, accessibility and sustainability. Includes: three buildings covering 7400.0 sqm. ⅓ tenants live in cluster apartments (communal); rest in conventional units (still cooperative). Spreefeld is co-housing, not co-living
| Economic | Environmental | Social | ||
| Affordability: Need to put down 50% equity in co-operative(?) | Building: passive architecture, car-free area Energy: solar, geothermal Food Production: Shared garden Waste Management: recycling, compost | Shared meals and activities: daily shared meals, yoga External interactions: support local Teepee livng group | ||
| My score: medium | My score: high | My score: high |
Project Name: Happy Pigeons
City: Berlin
Mission: Life is better with community. Share together. Grow together. Live together.
About: Currently quite small with 3 flats and 9 people, but thinking of expanding to up to 30 people.
Values include being open-minded and giving back. Intentional about connecint international tenants with local Germans. Co-working space on ground floor.
| Economic | Environmental | Social | ||
| Affordability: slightly above average rental rate (600-700 euro/month) but includes many ameneties | Energy: n/a Food Production: n/a Waste Management: n/a | Shared meals and activities: Eat together 1/week External interactions: Regular interaction with local German community | ||
| My score: medium | My score: low | My score: high |
Project Name: Projects
City: Berlin
Mission: A new concept of living. Comfortable, shared housing in Berlin.
About: Values: community, tech and efficient design. Efficiency allows for a) returns for investor and b) impact on city through accommodating more people per sqm. Convenience and simplicity for the tenant is also key. Currently consists of two buildings with 18 tenants with plans to expand.
| Economic | Environmental | Social | ||
| Affordability: above average rental rate (750 euro/month) but includes several amenities | Not a prioritiy | Shared meals and activities: typically go out or order food in; not much cooking. Regular organized events between the two buildings. External interactions: n/a | ||
| My score: low | My score: low | My score: medium |
Project Name: Coconats
City: Outside of Berlin
Mission: Solitude not isolation.
About: Workation retreat place. 13 rooms with a maximum capacity of around 40 guests. Offers working facilities, outdoor activities, meals, and short-term stay. I do not analyze its economic, environmental and social elements as it is mainly a co-working space with short term stay. However, I found it interesting to speak to the founder and readers may be still want to check it out.
Your input
Are you familiar with other shared-living projects? I would love to hear from you.
Also, as you will see, I am still refining the above indicators for the categories (e.g. I still need to include financial stability from a for-profit side). If you have any ideas or suggestions, would be happy to hear them!