Low-impact luxury: how Swiss cooperative housing effectively reduces footprint

Abstract

Residents are often the driving forces behind the application of low-impact building materials and low-energy utilities, based on an integrated understanding of sustainability as well as self-interest: costs of housing are calculated in the projects as a sum of rent/purchase per m2; energy costs and typical co-housing costs for example for shared spaces. In this way, resident-led design or co-creation leads to sustainable and demand-driven housing qualities at similar or lower costs than mainstream, institutionally steered and standardised design. This paper analyses the strategies and design of the Geneva based housing cooperative Equilibre