Alternative living concepts for the 55-plus age group are in demand: the “zusammenhalt” co-operative easily filled 75 flats in Winterthur. Winkelhalden AG in Oberrieden attracted almost a third of its residents from the “hip” city of Zurich. What these housing concepts have in common is that they are based on a committed community. However, it often takes a lot of initiative and luck for the communities to obtain plots of land.
Developers and investors who have plots of land and want to supplement them with stimulating offers can attract such building groups as partners. The decisive factor here is the question of the right time to connect the building groups and the form of involvement in the development process. An evaluation of the Winkelhalden AG project provides answers to these questions.
The Winkelhalden AG project comprises 44 flats and a wide range of communal spaces such as a bistro, star bar, fitness centre, sauna and studios. The project was initiated by two private individuals who acquired the land, developed the business model for the public limited company, secured the financing, carried out a study commission, looked for fellow campaigners and realised the project. All of this was only possible because the initiators had a high level of entrepreneurship and a lot of experience with community-orientated business models.
One of the biggest challenges was generating the equity capital to finance the project. This required enlarging the group early on in the process and finding people willing to invest who were prepared to commit to the initially uncertain development process and the as yet unspecific housing concept. The consequences are visible in the evaluation. A tenant survey one year after moving in shows that the time of entry into the project characterises the relationship to the community: those who joined in the two years when the construction project was developed, the building permit was submitted and the flats were selected were the most successful in integrating into the community. They feel the least pressure to participate in community life. Of those who joined earlier, a third feel more under pressure to participate. They also have the highest proportion of those who have found it difficult to integrate into the community.
In this context, developers and investors can make a valuable contribution to community concepts: they can relieve building groups of the burden of financing and thus the early integration of less convinced residents by providing temporary equity and pre-financing the project development. In return, they can benefit from a small and committed building group, which ideally develops the alternative living concept from the time the spatial programme is defined and initiates and implements the participation process from the time of the preliminary project, with which future co-inhabitants are connected and integrated into the community. The building group can be a mixture of people who will live in the project in the future or who have relevant experience in developing alternative housing projects.
Alternative housing concepts do not appeal to the mainstream, but demand is far from being met: the fully let Winkelhalden AG currently manages a pool of interested parties with over 60 applications. Cooperations between professional developers and investors with experienced and proactive building groups help to distribute strengths and competences among the most suitable players.
Tag: Wohnkonzept
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Developing alternative forms of housing with building groups: Lessons learnt from the Winkelhalden
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Regensdorf receives a city quarter on top of an art museum
A city quarter on top of an art museum? This is not a typo, but a reality: In Regensdorf, the investment foundations Turidomus, Adimora and Pensimo have planned a new type of living and working concept. Zwhatt is the name – and it stands for social, cultural, ecological and architectural diversity. The cemented art museum of the Fondation Riklin is located in the foundation of the city quarter, which is being built on 3.6 hectares directly at the Regensdorf-Watt train station.
On behalf of the aforementioned investment foundations, Pensimo Management AG is realizing around 600 rental apartments and commercial space around central Zwhattplatz in two construction phases. The first construction phase envisages around 400 apartments, 12,000 square meters of commercial space and 330 underground parking spaces. The rental of the first apartments is scheduled to begin in autumn 2021.
A total of seven buildings are planned, two of which are high-rise buildings. The Riklin Foundation was set up in January by the St. Gallen conceptual artists Frank and Patrik Riklin. In Zwhatt, art is becoming the DNA of a new city quarter – it is supposed to lay a new foundation for social cohesion.
Pilot project for climate-adapted area development
Residents from Regensdorf, Adlikon and Watt gave the two artists everyday items such as suitcases, lamps and rocking horses. These were then reassembled with other suitcases, lamps and rocking horses, or rather “latticed”. The works of art created in this way were sunk into the foundation of the museum. Later they will be brought back to life using augmented reality.The new city quarter should meet the need for mobility, flexibility and freedom as well as the desire for community and home. Different lifestyles, family models and types of consumption are expressly encouraged. Zwhatt stands for the encounter with diversity. And this motto does not stop at the architecture either: the interpretation limits of the design plan were explored using a so-called Charrette process. 100 architects, urban planners and experts took part in the preselection in 2018. In the end, five teams were selected to help shape the project. The architects of the first construction phase were also evaluated using unusual methods such as the sufficiency pitch.
Zwhatt is a pilot project for the federal government’s climate-adapted area development. The district draws its energy from the groundwater and the electricity from its own photovoltaic systems. In the case of high-rise buildings, panels are also integrated into the facades. The mobility concept provides for a small number of parking spaces and thus low-car living. The desired mobility is made possible by sharing offers for electric cars and e-bikes. Co-working spaces, shops and restaurants directly on the site support this concept. The first occupancy is planned for 2023.