A Socio-spatial Approach to the First Legal Hall Cohousing Setting in Switzerland: The Case Study of Hallenwohnen in Zurich

This study explores the collective settings of Hallenwohnen (hall dwelling) as a section of the Zollhaus settlement, which is the follow-up project by the Kalkbreite housing cooperative and has been in function since January 2021 in Zurich, Switzerland. Hallenwohnen is the first legal hall cohousing arrangement in Switzerland. The private and semiprivate spaces of Hallenwohnen consist of a large open hall with collective basic structures and mobile residential towers (roll spaces) as the core concept, which offer an affordable, self-managed/self-build, collaborative coliving and coworking arrangement in the center of Zurich. The qualitative case study method was applied through semistructured interviews with occupants of Hallenwohnen, direct observations, spatial investigations and document analyses. The results reveal that the innovative socio-spatial potentials of the intermediate spaces have been activated through the participatory intentions of the community. Living as one household in a collective arrangement and multiplicity usage of hybrid spaces have activated participation-capable housing spaces, while constraints and conflicts have mobilized the (re)negotiations and reinterpretations of collective housing spaces.

Social problems exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020

This paper describes housing, food, and health insecurities exacerbated by the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic. It explores the problems large cities face while managing information, distributing aid, and providing for isolated citizens. Inclusive housing, cooperative projects and incentives to curtail gentrification and favelization within cities, will be explored as well as new forms of vigilantism and social action.

Vivienda social: necesidades comunes, caminos comunes y dificultades comunes. La experiencia uruguaya.

This paper attempts to describe a particularly successful model of social production of habitat, that of Uruguayan housing cooperatives, which has already been developed for more than half a century, linking it with the conclusions of studies on the management of common goods by the people own selves by the Elinor Ostrom. Uruguayan housing cooperative´s characteristics and central aspects are analysed. Main singularities of the system are self-management, direct involvement of future users throughout their work or savings, and collective ownership of the houses, granting the right to use and enjoy to households. Subsequently, it is made a brief presentation of Ostrom’s work on commons and the Uruguayan cooperative model is taken up considering these concepts. This paper concludes that this social housing model would have great potential if had the support of the governments, currently oriented to free market, throughout development of an adequate legal framework, public funding, and access to land.

Impact of thermal renovation on selected characteristics of partition walls and the consumption of heat energy

Renovation of multi-family residentials, including mainly thermal renovation, which includes adding thermal insulation, contributes to the improvement of living conditions. Above all, it reduces the operating costs of renovated buildings by reducing the consumption of heat energy for central heating. This article discusses the impact of light wet thermal renovation on the temperature distribution in the vertical cross-section of the partition wall and the calculation value of the temperature on the inner surface of the partition wall, as well as on the reduction of thermal energy consumption in buildings. The subject of the research was residentials erected in the large-panel, large-block, and traditional technology between 1984 and 1994, managed by Łomża Housing Cooperative (ŁSM).

Zabezpieczenia rzeczowe dotyczące spółdzielni w orzecznictwie sądowym – wybrane zagadnienia

The article presents the issue of securing cooperative claims against the background of selected judgments of the Supreme Court. Such claims may be secured by establishing a mortgage, a registered pledge or the transfer of ownership for security. A cooperative, especially a housing cooperative, may be a beneficiary of such securities as a creditor. The assets of a cooperative can also be encumbered. It is not possible to establish security on a real estate with an unclear legal status. Establishing a mortgage on a separate ownership of the premises for which a land and mortgage register cannot be established is excluded. In a case of a title transfer for security, it is crucial to contractually define the mechanism of clearance for the parties and the issue of the so-called oversecuring.

Acciones colectivas en la recuperación de espacios verdes públicos: Caso Quebrada Ortega, Quitumbe, Quito-Ecuador.

Green spaces are protagonists in the new way of conceiving public space, where the collective actions undertaken by social organizations use natural benefits as a source of unlimited resources that improve their quality of life. In this context, public green spaces are in a favorable setting for the development of local activities. However, in the South of Quito, the logic of the State is opposed to the recovery of green areas as triggers of urban life, prioritizing the construction of massive houses and facilities before the recovery of streams and forests that are characteristic elements of the topography from the city. Here the categories of collective actions undertaken by the Alianza Solidaria Housing Cooperative in the recovery of Quebrada Ortega were analyzed and determined. Interviews, photographic archives, semiotic analysis and surveys were the techniques used to feed a mixed analysis methodology. As a result, we find that community participation and self-management are decisive collective actions in the appropriation of public spaces. Finally, the role of women becomes an essential element for executing the processes to improve the quality of life of the community.

Cooperativismo autogestionario de hábitat y asociativismo vecinal. El caso del Programa de Autogestión de la Vivienda de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (Argentina).

Since the 2000s, the City of Buenos Aires (Argentina) has implemented the Housing Self-Management Program (PAV), which promotes self-managed habitat production through the granting of collective loans to grassroots social organizations. The existing housing cooperative bank allows us to reflect on the self-managed forms used by the organizations and their impact on the neighborhood relationships built in the stage of living in the dwellings. From the deployment of a qualitative methodology, various primary sources of information produced in different research stages were recovered and analyzed from an approach that seeks to contribute to the current debates of the self-managed production of popular habitat. Among the results obtained, it was possible to verify that the forms assumed by the self-management process in the housing production stage have impacts on the base conditions for the construction of neighborhood associations typical of living.

Apartment Block Management by a Housing Cooperative: Law Improvement Areas

This article deals with the regulation of public relations that are developing regarding the management of an apartment building by housing, house-building cooperative. Based on the analysis of Russian legislation on housing and house-building cooperative, attention is drawn to the legal gaps in housing legislation related to the management of multi-apartment housing, house-building cooperative, which is one of the important problems of housing, house-building cooperative, as well as ways to solve them.

People with intellectual disabilities as heirs. Part 3

The article is another one in the series on people with intellectual disabilities as heirs. It discusses next steps that heirs need to take after an inheritance is accepted and a court confirmation of inheritance acquisition or a notarial deed of succession certification is received to be able to dispose of the property they acquired from the testator. It presents issues relating to inheritance division based on an agreement between the heirs and inheritance division by a court order, claiming the legitime, reporting the inheritance to the tax office to be entitled to inheritance tax exemption, as well as making an entry in the land register, reporting the acquisition of a car, notifying the homeowner association or the housing cooperative, changing the parties to contracts on services that are currently provided, etc. Practical difficulties that may arise when heirs with intellectual disabilities are taking these steps are listed along with the best methods to overcome them.