On the occasion of the International Social Housing Festival in Barcelona, the City Council is presenting the books ‘Cohabitatge a Barcelona' and 'Gestar-Habitar'.
The International Social Housing Festival is being held from 7 to 9 June and has the goal of learning from public housing policies and their challenges in well-established and emerging housing systems. The festival also uses the city of Barcelona as a model.
‘Cohabitatge a Barcelona’ [Co-housing in Barcelona]
‘Cohabitatge a Barcelona’ looks at a number of cooperative housing projects in Barcelona, some of them built and some under construction. The book explains how the co-housing process is managed in terms of architecture, urban planning, funding, law and tax matters, with details on the experience of living in a community, nourished by cooperative spirit. The case studies are explained by members of cooperatives, experts and designers who address aspects of design, sustainability, construction and urban living. The book is a tool for understanding the design and construction of co-housing and its community life.
The content of the book sets out the best practices in cooperative housing in Barcelona, accompanied by a critical look at what this model means in leaseholds or co-housing. The publication looks at a number of buildings already constructed, as case studies explained in detail by members of their cooperatives and designers. It also looks at other projects which are under way in the city. The book also includes some essays and transcriptions of conversations with experts taking about the co-housing model.
‘Gestar-Habitar’
Addressing the generation of social housing through its complexity is essential for gauging what point social housing stocks are at in large urban areas. The need to sustainably respond to the housing emergency has led to a rethink of strategies to generate housing, and more urgently, social housing.
This publication sets out and analyses the different strategies for the promotion and execution of social housing developed by the municipal administration in Barcelona in recent years, taking a series of projects which provide an example of as many as possible of the working methodologies, programmes and innovative projects while guaranteeing architectural quality.
The book is a collective affair, where all those involved in the process of gestating housing and inhabiting it have a voice. This voice is materialised through broad variety of documents: drawings, maps, rendered images, photographs, reflections, debates, first-hand accounts and more. A collection of situations which invite reflection.