Towards Empowering Cohousing Communities: Finding Balance with a Group of Users-clients Throughout the Architectural Process

Authors

Audrey Mertens, University of Liège, BelgiumFollow
Louise Coniasse, University of Liège, BelgiumFollow
Catherine Elsen, University of Liège, BelgiumFollow

Abstract

This paper explores the evolving role of architects in cohousing projects in response to environmental, economic, and social challenges. This research incorporates insights from semi-structured interviews in three Belgian case studies. The foundations and values of cohousing communities are tackled, highlighting shifts in architects' roles and challenges in working with groups of user-clients. In these cohousing processes, we found that the representatives of these user-client groups may not always share the full breadth of their negotiations with architects. Architects seem to miss out on some of the nuances, and some participants found that this approach left their voices unheard. Amidst pragmatic concerns and other value-based issues, this paper reimagines some aspects of the ar-chitects’ role in cohousing projects. This paper aims to help architects balance stakeholders’ viewpoints within budget, timeline, practicality, and values constraints.

Keywords

cohousing communities; architectural design processes; user-centered approaches; self-developed housing projects; architects’ role

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.462

Citation

Mertens, A., Coniasse, L., and Elsen, C. (2024) Towards Empowering Cohousing Communities: Finding Balance with a Group of Users-clients Throughout the Architectural Process, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.462

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Conference Track

Research Paper