From Dialogue to Action: Since 2016, CITYMAKERS supported the realization of selected project ideas in the context of liveable city making. During that time, 3 focus groups received seed money from the Robert Bosch Foundation as well as mentoring for idea development.
One focus groups was about the theme “The Future of Living”. The team explored alternative ways of living, working and sharing in Chinese cities. It discussed and conceptualised a novel resident-centred building type in China. The project explored how elements and characteristics of German cases can be employed to make housing and living in Chinese cities more socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable and financially affordable. The group work resulted into an in-depth study on co-housing models in Germany and China.
Read below more the ‘CITYMAKERS-Future of Living’ project and about the team of experts behind.
CITYMAKERS Future of Living – Focus Group
Existing housing projects offer few options with regard to cost, size and demographic mix both in Germany and China. Conventional project planning pays little attention to the aspirations of urban residents and their desires to live in urban communities that are inclusive and inspiring. The Future of Living Incubator Group (FOL) asks what it takes to make housing more inclusive, sustainable and affordable.
WHY
Based on the vision that co-housing is not only one of Berlin’s secret success factors to liveable city making, but also holds a potential for application in China. How could co-housing be developed into a business model to make the future of living a place where you can share your time and skills, where neighbours inspire and help each other? A place with shared spaces and costs where life together is better than living alone.
WHAT
Kicked off in the context of the CITYMAKERS China – Germany program and supported by funding from the Robert Bosch Foundation, a focus group of German and Chinese academics and practitioners approached the topic using three formats:
The results were presented at AEDES Architecture Forum in Berlin in April 2018 and at the Annual Mainland China Meeting of the Urban Land Institute in June 2018, and also made into a 130-page bilingual manual introducing 10 case studies from Germany and China:
Future of Living Booklet (PDF)
After this first phase, the topic of co-housing was continued as a Joint Studio ‘Future of Living: Together’ between Tongji CAUP and Bochum University of Applied Sciences, where two of the project initiators, Dr. Iris Belle and Dr. Erhard An-He Kinzelbach, teach. The studio involved students of both universities and ran from March to July 2018 including a one week workshop in Shanghai, funded by the Chinese-German Campus, CAUP and Bochum University of Applied Sciences.
The next possible step would be to create a prototype with real estate developers in China.
WHO
Contact
In 2005, DONG Hao co-founded Crossboundaries and he is now the Managing Director of its Beijing office. In this interview he reflects on how architects/designers are shapers that inspire people and how important it is to create a whole organism with a relationship to individuals and society.
LU Ying brings experience from eight cities and three continents to her business in Shanghai. Her enterprise Future Urban Living aims at promoting a circular economy instead of the well-established ‘make-use-dispose’ model.
The incubator project „Future of Living“ was one of three projects that received support from the CITYMAKERS China – Germany program during its second year of funding. We want to know: What happened since then, how did the project continue? On behalf of the team, Iris Belle answered the questions.