Cohousing in Barcelona: Designing, Building and Living for Cooperative Models

Description

Barcelona offers a prime example of the co-housing model as an asset prized for its use value as opposed to investment. This book is a compilation of cooperative housing projects in Barcelona, both complete and under construction. It explains how the co-housing process is managed in terms of architecture, urban planning, financing, legality, and taxation, and delves into the experience of living in a community fueled a cooperative spirit. The content of the book presents designs for cooperative housing, accompanied by a critical vision of the model's implications in terms of the transfer of use or co-living. Finished and inhabited projects are compiled along with ongoing projects, to offer a general view of this way of living in Barcelona. The case studies are explained by members of cooperatives, experts and designers who look at aspects of design, sustainability, construction and urban life. This book is a tool for understanding the design and construction of co-housing and the community life that goes on there.

David Lorente and Tomoko Sakamoto are the founders of a book design studio Spread. Until 2012, they worked at Actar Publishers (David as a designer and Tomoko as an editor). Currently, Spread is designing books on architecture, urbanism, art and design. As a family unit, they have been interested in cohousing since 2016 and they started to live in a newly created cohousing project called La Chalmeta in Marina de Prat Vermell district in Barcelona from 2021.