The potential of cohousing for rural Austria

Abstract

Spatial living conditions have been changing fast because of economic and demographic transition. Rural areas in particular face the challenge of maintaining the infrastructures of everyday life. This article argues that cohousing projects are successful in co-developing and maintaining flexible infrastructures for everyday life for their residents and the neighbourhood. The article understands cohousing and planning as mutual learning processes and proposes a feminist approach to planning for everyday life. The potential of innovation of planning practice is explored on the basis of three Austrian cases. Conclusions show the potential and obstacles of planning and housing policies that favour cohousing and of planning innovation in rural Austria.

The re-emergence of self-managed co-housing in Europe: A critical review of co-housing research

“…Wankiewizc discusses several cases in Austria to find a positive response to maintaining everyday services (Wankiewicz, 2015), whereas Spellerberg found resistance from local authorities in rural areas of southern Germany against self-organised housing initiatives (Spellerberg and Gerhards, 2014). In most papers, however, location is not considered essential.…”

The role of the local institutional context in understanding collaborative housing models: empirical evidence from Austria

“…In addition, local, more precisely municipal councils in Austria have a strong say in spatial planning strategies, e.g. in defining a particular need for house types and social housing in their area (Wankiewicz, 2015). This local decision-making power can, to a certain extent, facilitate collaborative housing initiatives or exert a constraining effect, depending on the willingness of the local political elites.…”

“…In the province of Salzburg, even 46% of all flats are owner-occupied. (Wankiewicz, 2015) This structural dominance of private ownership in regional housing markets is also reflected in the province's policy approach towards direct housing subsidies. The Conservative party (ÖVP), which has traditionally been strong in the provincial government of Salzburg, is making sure that new housing development has to contain a substantial share of owner-occupied houses or flats.…”

“…However, due to increasing flexibility on employment markets and changing lifestyles among younger people, the demand for social rented housing is actually growing (Wankiewicz, 2015). In the city of Salzburg, scarcity of new building becomes a problem given predictions of future population growth, not comparable to predictions for Vienna but still substantial for a smaller regional capital.…”

“…Furthermore, the few existing empirical studies in this field either focused entirely on the Vienna city region or on selected fields of collaborative housing activity, such as Baugruppen or Baugemeinschaften (e.g. Temel, Lorbek, Ptaszyńska, & Wittinger, 2009) and Cohousing (Wankiewicz, 2015). This paper aims to fill this research gap by presenting results of an empirical study completed in 2015, thereby extending existing work on organisational models within non-profit and cooperative housing in Austria (Lang & Novy, 2014).…”