This graduation thesis consist of two parts a P2 research paper and a P5 presentation of a design. The paper describes the housing shortage twofold through the shortage itself and influences on it through the process of ageing. Afterwards the concept of collaborative housing is introduced, one form of collaborative housing is a housing cooperative. Following the introduction of a housing cooperative this paper describes ways of facilitating a housing cooperative through design. A literature study and four case studies will be used in answering this question of how to facilitate. Through an elaboration of the process of starting a housing cooperative this paper identifies inclusion, physical meetings and information transfer as the main problems. Following these problems the following design methods are identified as solutions: Open building plan, incorporation of a meeting space and an Incremental housing system. Lastly the paper concludes the design of a housing cooperative should embody the filosophy behind the housing cooperative: a decommodified type of housing.

The P5 material is a proposal of a design and self building method that derived from the research paper.