English

Initiative Gemeinsam Bauen & Wohnen (Initiative Collaborative Building & Living)

The Initiative Gemeinsam Bauen & Wohnen represents the interests of collaborative housing projects; it spreads the idea of collaborative living; and it is a meeting point and a networking hub for people interested in collaborative living.

The Initiative offers a platform for bringing together all who want to develop the topic of collaborative building and living. The Initiative addresses professional service providers like architects or developers as well as politicians and private people who think of living in such a project. The Initiative’s objective is to improve the conditions for collaborative housing and to support the realization of projects. For that, political decisions and commitment of the public sector is necessary.

If you have questions related to the Initiative’s work, please contact us at kontakt@inigbw.org.

Collaborative Housing in Austria – Still an Exception!

In Austria, like in other European countries, since the 1960s several collaborative projects could be realized by groups looking for living space satisfying their desires and for living as part of a community. Important projects like "Wohnen mit Kindern", B.R.O.T. and Sargfabrik were realized in Vienna, which are exemplary to this day.

Contrary to other countries, these project were singular exceptions because they were not taken as occasion to establish positive conditions for other, similar projects. This is true although demand exists, as follow-up projects like Miss Sargfabrik and the B.R.O.T. projects show. These were only possible because of luck, enormous effort and support from predecessor projects. Most new projects have to start again as pilots instead of building up on former experiences.

Establish Conditions for Collaborative Building and Living!

The Initiative advocates the establishment of legal, organizational and economic conditions which allow people to initiate and realize self-controlled and collaborative housing projects. Important elements of these conditions are networking, consulting and information, and adaptation of subsidy requirements, new models of financing and crediting, know-how transfer and, above all, offering of inexpensive building sites for groups by the public.

The Initiative Gemeinsam Bauen & Wohnen tries to be a focal point. At this point, knowledge and experiences shall be brought together systematically, interested people shall be able to network so that the demand for collaborative housing and self-organized building groups becomes visible. And, at this point, people shall be able to work on the establishment of useful conditions for such projects. The Initiative is organized as an association (Verein), it is politically independent and works without economic interests.