On Thursday afternoon, the Competence Centre for the Management of Cooperatives hosted a conference, which was a great follow-up to the inauguration of a new collaborative housing project “Un modello abitativo per la longevità” which took place in Oltrisarco in the morning. The housing project is led by our partner organisation Cooperativa Sole and is also a case study in our ASSETS Horizon Europe project.

At the conference the Centre had the pleasure to welcome as speakers Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia (University of Bristol), Lucia Chaloin (Université Grenoble Alpes), Luisa Rossini (Universidade de Lisboa), Ernst Gruber (Wohnbund e.V., Vienna), and Joost Nieuwenhuijzen (Federation EIL, the Worldwide Network of the Experiment in International Living, Amsterdam), as well as our practitioner partners Samuele Verucchi (Cooperativa Sole) and Nicola Grosso (AGCI Bolzano).

The event brought together academics and professionals who enriched the discussion with impactful presentations, sharing insights and case studies from across Europe.

Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia explored collaborative housing in the UK as a pathway to social inclusion, focusing on research insights and case studies such as Rupali Court in Birmingham and Chapeltown Cohousing.

Luisa Rossini examined, through comparative case studies in Berlin, Rome, and Barcelona, how access to public assets - land, buildings, funding, and technical support - is crucial for scaling cooperative housing and ensuring long-term affordability.

Lucia Chaloin examined top-down collaborative housing in Mediterranean countries: third-sector actors, such as service cooperatives stay linked to welfare systems while fostering individual autonomy from traditional family support and care institutions.

Ernst Gruber disclosed insights from the context in Austria, specifically Vienna, focusing on the participatory model, which emphasizes broad inclusion but tends to favor solutions with limited influence over resident composition and reduced innovation and the partnership model, which focuses on smaller-scale projects with targeted integration of vulnerable groups, allowing greater control over resident mix and higher innovation potential, though requiring greater resources from future tenants.

Joost Nieuwenhuijzen explored collaborative housing in Europe, including cooperatives, cohousing initiatives, community land trusts, and self-build projects, showing examples from across Europe such as Berlin, Helsinki, Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Zurich. He concluded underlining that The European Federation for Living (EFL) advocates for stronger EU and national policy support to help co-housing move from niche projects to a mainstream solution for affordable and sustainable living. In the second part of the afternoon, participants and speakers engaged in an open dialogue aimed at fostering the exchange of ideas, sharing suggestions, and encouraging active community involvement.

Heartfelt thank you to all the participants for the insightful contribution!