The course AR-472 Swiss cooperative housing: A critical overview examines the phenomenon of the collectively owned, not-for-profit cooperative housing which plays an important part in the Swiss residential sector. Once the main provider of working-class housing, the cooperative model has in recent decades enjoyed a great surge in popularity due grassroots activism and lower rents, as well as the professional interest of architects, following experimentations with innovative typologies of shared living. This overview in twelve lectures is critical inasmuch as it not only states various aspects of this overall positive phenomenon, but also identifies, probes and questions the pressures and tensions it creates: with co-existing state policies and market logics, with member and non-member citizens, and with the city. The first half of the course is chronological, looking at the emergence, development and transformation of housing cooperatives in Swiss cities, in particular Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne, and Berne, from the late 19th century until today. The second half identifies six transversal themes that situate this local history within a wider continuity of discourses on collective living.
- Professor: Irina Davidovici
