Livable Cities: A Conference on Issues Affecting Life in Cities

Abstract

The population in urban areas is growing rapidly. Cities are becoming more densely inhabited, which puts enormous pressure on the housing market. Additionally, the housing needs of people in the housing market are evolving due to several societal shifts making the growing city population more diverse. A first societal shift is increased longevity caused by declining mortality among older adults in higher-income countries. Secondly, family structures are changing as well. There is a decrease in household sizes due to, among others, fewer children being born. Projections suspect an even further reduction in the future. Thus, the amount of one and two-person households is rising. Lastly, urban areas are welcoming more diverse inhabitants. Increased migration from rural areas or from abroad causes the accumulation of many different cultures in cities, each with its traditions and habits. Consequently, the housing stock is inadequately equipped to accommodate this heterogeneity. In this challenging context, the HOUSE-research project was initiated, a collaboration between Hasselt University and Vrije Universiteit Brussels, both located in Belgium. The project's research objective is to study the effects of the residential environment on the subjective well-being of older adults in Flanders, specifically how innovative housing (concepts and characteristics) could contribute. From architecture and social sciences, the HOUSE-research project emphasizes the need for alternative housing options. Among many other housing options, cohousing could be a valuable alternative. This is a form of housing with common spaces and shared facilities, as Vestbro described. Many variations of cohousing exist, such as collective housing, cooperative housing, collaborative housing, and ecovillages. Studies on the different types of cohousing show exciting advantages that could benefit cities' societal shifts. Young adults, for instance, could experience the financial advantages of sharing a flat. Cohousing can enhance social and emotional interaction among residents to counteract social isolation. For older adults, cohousing could benefit their social respect, preventing loneliness and isolation and providing opportunities for distributing care tasks and daily chores. Cohousing can reduce the amount of private space per unit in exchange for communal spaces, addressing densification concerns.

Although cohousing benefits the housing challenges caused by societal changes in cities, specific difficulties arise. In academic and professional literature, cohousing options are often described with a specific term, changing over time and from region to region, which does not benefit the discussions on this typology, especially not when introducing cohousing to the general public. Unclear information about cohousing typologies contributes to maintaining existing barriers to cohousing. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to (1) sketch barriers of cohousing that underscore the need for a sharing-based housing categorization; (2) analyze existing sharing-based housing categorizations on their strengths and weaknesses with regards to the cohousing discussions; (3) display cohousing projects, to validate the application of the existing categorizations in practice to emphasize these strengths and weaknesses.