Idea-based and collaborative housing
Local innovation systems around the barriers to idea-based and collaborative housing in Sweden:
financing, corporate forms, tenure and inclusive processes
This project engaged with systemic challenges for idea-based and collaborative housing in Sweden, namely an immature financial market and inexperienced municipalities; detrimental forms for association and tenure; the organization and support of necessary co-creation processes; and creating, strengthening and leveraging synergies between all these elements in local innovation systems with long-term impact on sustainable community development.
Funder:
Formas
Budget:
6,5 million SEK
Time period:
Sep 2023–Aug 2026
Participants
Jaan-Henrik Kain, project leader, Jenny Stenberg, University of Gothenburg
Jonas Lagander, Moa Nilsson, Eva Ternegren, Coompanion
Tinna Harling, Egnahemsfabriken Tjörn
Jesper Bryngelsson, Marie Lindén, Emmeli Wulfstrand, Swedish Union of Tenants
Charlotte Brännström, Klara Sjögren Holtz, Orust Municipality
Kerstin Kärnekull, Kollektivhus NU
Katarina Carlsson, Platskultur
Peter Eklund, Hela Sverige ska leva
Ylva Lundkvist Fridh, Ingrid Westerfors, Mikrofonden
Kristoffer Lüthi, Ekobanken
John Areblad, Kanvassfilm
PROJECT RESULTS
— What we learned
”Within idea-based and collaborative housing provision, it is both necessary and socially, societally and economically enriching to leave a narrow focus on housing itself and instead manage housing provision as an active and powerful subset of the local community’s development in a broad sense”
Book about financing of ideabased housing 2024
Financing is the biggest challenge for the idea based and collaborative housing provision, and we learned early on that ”municipal garantee” is a very interesting tool that can determine whether or not a house will be created. Our sister project has written a book on the topic, aimed at municipal actors who often have poor knowledge of this possibility or do not know how it can be used within the laws and rules that govern municipal operations.
Study trip to Denmark 2024
Denmark is very interesting to learn from as it has a long tradition of collective housing. In Roskilde municipality they have come so far that the officials do not need the politicians’ approval at every step, they already have a mandate to work with cohousing and are often using competitions of various kinds as a way forward. See the films about Munksø gård in Roskilde municipality and Grønne Eng in Copenhagen municipality (Danish):
Film about Röda Oasen 2024
On the way to Denmark, we visited Röda Oasen in Malmö, who implemented their cohousing in an existing building, wich was an advantage in terms of financing as they had a building to mortgage so that civil society did not have to take such a large financial risk initially. See the film (Swedish):
Film about Gården 2024
The research project has learned a lot from the collaborative housing project of Gården in Uppsala, who points to two important prerequisites for success: that the municipality is familiar with and knowledgeable about this way of building, and that civil society has a very skilled ‘project pilot’ who stands by the residents’ side throughout the process. See the film (Swedish):
Book about the prerequisites for idea-based housing 2024
To learn more about systems for housing financing and association and tenure forms, a review was in collaboration with our sister project made, of known challenges but also success factors for collaborative housing, with a focus on economically vulnerable groups in society. The review resulted in a book which described the problems and how in various housing projects the actors met the challenges and succeeded in constructing homes.
Study trip to Tanum 2024
The project used study visits as an important way of learning and in line with this we went to the municipality of Tanum on the west coast of Sweden, where one of the country’s leading examples of collaborative housing with a focus on economically vulnerable groups in society can be found: Hogslätt’s vänboende with twelve homes for older women. An important success factor was that civil society managed to convince the politicians in the municipality of the social benefit of providing a ‘municipal guarantee’. The good result implied that the municipality supported civil society to realize another collaborative housing project: Andreastorpet’s vänboende.
Film about Husebybergen 2022
The cobuilding project of seventeen homes and a community house in Husebybergen in Ellös, Orust, was one of the housing projects that the research project learned from. This film from tells about the early process of developing the area and it will be supplemented at the end of the research project when the Huseby residents have hopefully finished building their homes. Read about the first two years and see the film (Swedish):