Thread by @holz_bau

i write a lot about housing options & various housing forms. it's something i've been meaning to do a thread on for a while.

we don't have many options when it comes to housing in the US - our stock is largely detached houses or small apartments, and almost no social housing

our land use here is really spiky. most of seattle outside of the downtown core looks like this: car-dependent neighborhoods with detached houses as far as the eye can see. many of these neighborhoods don't even have sidewalks.

and then we slam apartment buildings in poorly planned/designed urban villages - and on loud, dangerous, polluted arterials. there is very little unit diversity in these buildings - most of them are small 1 BRs or studios.

there are very few cooperatives in seattle (about 0.4% of all housing units in the city). there are also just a handful of cohousing projects and community land trusts. no baugruppen (yet!)

we don't really have development banks like germany's KfW, or their GSW bank - which funds cooperatives.

we also don't have major banks that will fund innovative or non-market forms of housing.

we also don't have proactive land policies to prioritize various forms of housing

we could also get into the weeds on how pathetically bad land use in the US also makes this issue worse.

however, since that's like 90% of my posts anyway (😭) - this thread will focus on housing options in other places that hopefully can help inform how we could live together

i'll start w/ german baugruppen - a favorite of mine. this is effectively urban cohousing that is typically co-designed by the residents. they come in a variety of sizes, and differing levels of affordability.

@UrbanistOrg has my posts on them from 2014

theurbanist.org/category/baugr…

they generally revolve around a theme (multigenerational housing, solidarity, living without cars, etc) - and tend to have a ton of amenities you would never see on US projects. this 🧵on an 11-unit BG in koeln is a good example of this:

https://twitter.com/holz_bau/status/1426060290270011395?s=20

also allow for residents to push boundaries more than market-rate developer could. several baugruppen in germany and austria incorporate mass timber - even on small scale buildings (values over profit FTW)

unit size/design tailored to budget & need...
baunetzwissen.de/holz/objekte/w…

or do wildly amazing things like incorporate refugee housing, as in this baugruppe in tuebingen by yonder and SOMAA

baunetz.de/meldungen/Meld…

baugruppen aren't just an urban construct - you find them in suburban and rural areas of germany...

and also in the netherlands, like this really incredible low-slung 9-unit project in archdaily.com/914154/oosterw…

the amenities are critical for really making more compact living better. this amazing BG in vienna by einszueins has a massive bike room, sauna, library, workshop, cafe, office, community room, common kitchen, and guest suite. unit sizes: studio to 4BR

simonprize.org/co-housing-woh…

one of the ways i could see this taking off in the US is if there was a way for homeowners who bought decades ago to team up w/ cities or non profits and leverage the *massive* increases in home values for small scale baugruppen

https://twitter.com/holz_bau/status/1286563907679600640

that last idea sound familiar? it's effectively a riff on the polikatoikia in athens - a system where developers avoided cost of land in development, by providing owners with their own unit(s) in the project - resulting in amazing mixed use neighborhoods

bloomberg.com/news/features/…

the italian magazine domus had a really interesting write up on nearly a decade ago on a berlage institute research project re-envisioning polykatoikia domusweb.it/en/architectur…

dutch have a cousin to baugruppen, called Collectief Particulier Opdrachtgeverschap (CPO) - or collective private commission. it's where a group of people come together to build housing, in order to reduce costs, selecting the architect and builder. some cities hold land for it

like baugruppen, CPOs also come in a variety of flavors and sizes...

from rowhouses and semi-detached houses, like this one... schaapsturm.nl/projecten/cpo-…

to compact infill housing like this (note the common courtyard - in seattle this would be parking for cars - instead, it's a wonderful amenity for the people who live here)

archdaily.com/410962/elandsh…

to large undertakings, such as the blackjack in amsterdam's buiksloterham. 32 homes, from 485 sf - 2,150 sf. plus offices, a microhotel... and it's aiming to be energy neutral.

pics and plans here:

thematicdesign.org/wp-content/upl…

in aia seattle's 15 minute city panel i was on this summer - i presented 4 projects in germany and the netherlands where urban development is getting a wide economic and social mix, and part of how they do that is through coops, CPOs, and baugruppen

https://twitter.com/holz_bau/status/1402394059398737922?s=20

there is also a healthy self-build (zelfbouw) tradition in the NL, that has resulted in some really stunning projects.

again, in many instances, cities hold land specifically for this. and they also range in flavors and sizes...

from floating homes:
architectuur.nl/nieuws/eveneme…

to the stunning mass timber duplex 'freebooter' by gg-loop

archdaily.com/915782/freeboo…

interesting to note that the city of amsterdam provides quite a bit of info on self builds

amsterdam.nl/wonen-leefomge…

also should note that self builds in AMS - like most projects - are done with a ground lease. the city owns something like 80% of land, and so residents on the ground lease pay an annual fee, one the city could use to subsidize more social housing.

amsterdam.nl/wonen-leefomge…

this has added benefit of reducing first costs to construction. in seattle, you'd be looking at reducing the initial cost of construction by up to $300k for a 4-plex or 4 rowhomes on a single family lot.

amsterdam also has subsidies for self-build projects, with some great conditions...

must be fossil-fuel free
FSC-certified wood

and the subsidy value is tied to the performance of the project (e.g. meets NZEB, passivhaus, etc)

amsterdam.nl/veelgevraagd/?…

there is also 'Samen in het klein' (together, in miniature) for 2-4 households on a small lot. imagine the kinds of development you could do here.

multigenerational housing. friends. siblings and their families. divorced & extended families...

amsterdam.nl/wonen-leefomge…

and naturally, like there is 'samen in het klein' - there is 'Samen in het Groot' (together with groot, i mean together, in the large)

the large group can take form of something like a wooncoöperatie (housing cooperative) - a large group who comes together and self-develops or co-develops a multifamily project.

one i really like, featuring circularity, urban mining is GAAGA's CiWoCo 1.0

https://twitter.com/holz_bau/status/1394012320410394627?s=20

as with a lot of german baugruppen - these can be a primary component of new dense, walkable districts often with blue-green infrastructure - like buiksloterham or centrumeiland

klimaatadaptatienederland.nl/en/@206443/cen…

but even more market-oriented development can offer a massive improvement over the typical market-rate stuff we see in seattle.

i am a massive fan of the open buildings movement underway in the NL: openbuilding.co/manifesto

they offer a way of building and/or co-designing really innovative projects w/ adaptable, circular buildings that offer a high degree of flexibility - allowing for a wide array of unit sizes.

patch22 is a mass timber open building by tom frantzen in AMS

this project hits so many buttons for me - low energy, mass timber, circularity...

and a floor plan that is easily divided into separate condos of various sizes. owners could design on interiors, or work with architect (or own architect) to fit out

residents fitting out units was the norm in germany, and i think it's fairly common in the NL as well. i had to convince our landlord in bayern to install a kitchen.

this flexibility in this plan means that users could potentially expand or shrink their footprint over time

and this concept isn't really new. this builds on things dutch architects were doing in the 70s. here's a really interesting write up on a co-designed social housing project 'Molenvliet' - by frans van der werf

thematicdesign.org/wp-content/upl…

a similar project i absolutely adore is praeger richter's 24-unit 'ausbauhaus' (extension house) in berlin's neukoelln. it is a concept based on flexible and low-cost construction - with different standards for fitting out.

urbannext.net/ausbauhaus-neu…

the utilization of off the shelf components and a structural grid that allows for flexible floor plans does a number of things - it allows for radical degree of unit mix you would never see in the US - and offers home prices from the affordable to luxury. all in the same building

another form of housing i'm really intrigued by is the mietshaeuser syndikat.

it grew out of squatter communities in freiburg (it's incredibly depressing this wasn't on my radar at all while working there) and is a network of self-organized apartments

syndikat.org/en/

it sort of operates like TOPA - residents team up and buy their buildings w/ the syndikat - resulting in bottom up/self-organized multifamily housing that is decommodified. the residents form an association w/ 51% ownership, the syndikat owns other 49%

the syndikat is built up of the membership of all of the projects (to date, something like 170 buildings). you effectively have a linked network that is larger and more powerful in a real estate market dominated by massive corporations

members pay solidarity fund that can be used for obtaining loans for new projects, or bridging funding gaps. as loans get paid down, the value of buildings could also be used to fund new syndikats. it's a really interesting option that is spreading from germany to other countries

while it may not be large - it has also garnered the attention of sizable banks - including the GLS bank, an ethical, cooperative bank that funds a number of innovative community-oriented projects in DE

gls.de/privatkunden/w…

it can also be used to fund renovations or (rental) baugruppen - and a number of syndikat projects are underway in the car-light kleinschholz ecodistrict in freiburg

kleineschholz-syndikat.org/projekte/

and like i said, the idea has been exported to a number of other countries (maybe here i talked to them years ago, but it didn't go anywhere)

CH: mietshaeusersyndikat.ch/unsere-hauser/

NL: nieuwland.cc

AT: habitat.servus.at

another housing type we almost never see - even in hilly areas - are stepped terrassenhaeuser - terraced housing.

this was ubiquitous in CH, and rolling hills of bayern - even in built up areas.

burkardmeyer.ch/projekte/allme…

i could look at these all day long. there are also a couple of different ways to structure these - larger units on the bottom, smaller units on top. or similar sized units stepping up the hill. the big terrace, and good views/daylight are a big plus for me
subtilitas.site/post/155821209…

don't even need a hill to do this 🤗

my kids would run up and down this thing all day.

archdaily.com/907233/terrass…

once you start to look for these you find them everywhere - there are some massive brutalist developments in japan, like the pasadena heights in mishima.

misfitsarchitecture.com/2015/02/23/the…

for a while we had congregate housing in seattle. these were (largely market-rate) micro apartments or efficiency units with larger communal facilities - kitchen/dining and living areas. the council axed these a few years ago. yobi was one of better ones neimantaber.com/yobi-apartments

in germany, this is largely non-market form of housing, and is called 'Clusterwohnung' (cluster apartments). they are generally also much larger and much more affordable than congregate housing in seattle was. @UrbanistOrg piece i wrote on it here: theurbanist.org/2018/08/10/bri…

a really incredible self-managed mass timber cooperative for 174 students that is underway in heidelberg, and is full of cluster apartments - as well as courtyard and auditorium w/ massive kitchen

dgj.eu/portfolio/dgj2…

the german BBSR (Federal Institute for Building, Urban and Spatial Research) published a really interesting document w/ clusterwohnungen case studies early last year - which includes spreefeld in berlin

bbsr.bund.de/BBSR/DE/veroef…