Exploring Urban Innovation in Lisbon

Context In contemporary Italy, public housing provision follows two main typologies: edilizia residenziale pubblica (ERP) or "public residential housing", with rents determined by law based on residents’ incomes, and edilizia residenziale sociale - (ERS) or "social residential building" offering affordable rents for individuals who do not meet public housing criteria and cannot access housing in the private market (Storto, 2018; Divari, 2019). The ERS rent is capped, and tenants are selected through a public call. Under this typology, there is a specific fund for ERS housing which also serves social networking purposes. Porto 15 belongs to this stream of projects. Project Porto 15 is an ERS development financed through a national call for housing projects from 2015 that aimed to promote housing autonomy for people under 35 by expanding and diversifying the affordable housing provision. The municipality of Bologna was one of the winners of the call.  It initiated the housing project in collaboration with two other public bodies: the municipal welfare service provider and the regional public housing manager. The public institutions’ aim was to address housing demand and promote collaborative living as a desirable housing model among young people. Collaborative housing in Italy is mainly based on private property, long-term investment and selective communities (Rogel, 2018). This category of housing can encompass cohousing, residents’ cooperatives, solidarity condominium and eco-villages, among other. Porto 15 represents a pioneering experiment in collaborative housing, expanding access to it through a public rental scheme. This scheme responds to the co-housing category, by keeping private space to a minimum and complementing it with shared living spaces. In this case, the ‘co’ not only signifies mutual help relationships among tenants but also reflects collective efforts in networking to promote a collaborative housing culture in the neighbourhood (Calastri, 2013).  In the Porto 15 experiment, future residents received 40 hours of training aimed at fostering group cohesion. The selection process entailed studying candidates’ motivations and profiles to create a socially mixed diverse community, including individuals with specific fragilities such as migration background, disability, and integration difficulties. Residents’ origins are diverse, including Syria, Peru, Russia, Spain, Morocco and various regions of Italy. The intention was to extend beyond a self-contained community, selecting individuals based on their motivation to build social ties beyond their homes. Currently, the co-housing accommodates 25 adults and 12 children. Prospective residents were encouraged to establish an association, disseminate the positive implications of the collaborative housing model, and facilitate sense-making processes regarding the values and principles that underpin this type of housing. The housing development occupies a portion of a historic building dating back to 1914 which underwent a renovation to be repurposed as a co-housing facility. It comprises eighteen units, consisting of 9 two-bedroom and 9 three-bedroom apartments, along with a shared apartment and a multipurpose room. The premises also include a courtyard and communal spaces in the basements. Rent is set at a standard rate of seven euros per square meter, approximately 300 euros per month, depending on the apartment size. This stands in stark contrast to the average of eighteen euros per square meter in the private housing market within the central districts of Bologna, a city facing significant housing pressure.   Co-housing and tenant – landlord relations: changing postures? In Italy, recipients of public housing have traditionally been viewed as beneficiaries of either monetary subsidies for rent and bills or public house for living. The prevailing approach by public management perceived these individuals as users with uniform needs, leading to the delivery of standardised services to satisfy them. (Andersen & Pors, 2016). However, a “governance metatrend” (Mortensen et al., 2020) is emerging, fostering a hybridization of roles for service providers and users, encouraging  co-production, capacity-building, and a mutual learning perspective. With Porto 15, the public administration seeks to transform itself into an enabler and a place-maker, striving to create a space for opportunities, not just in physical terms but also socially. This marks a shift in attitude towards public housing residents, who are now actively engaged in creating and collaborating, rather than passively receiving social benefits.  In Porto 15, public bodies are shaping a new social dynamic by adopting a strength-based approach to social welfare (Price et al., 2020). In the final phase of the building renovation, as the group of dwellers was being formed, future residents participated in the co-design of the basements together with the architects. They collectively decided to incorporate a bicycle repair workshop, a shared laundry, communal storage and a music practice room in that space. After the group came together, irregular contact with the public service provider resulted in an interaction based on questions/answers or problem/solution, resembling a landlord-tenant relationship rather than the intended horizontal collaboration.   Paradoxically, this gap created an open space for innovation, allowing the co-housing group to take a proactive role. The group established a self-managed network, which was acknowledged by public authorities.    In its inaugural year, the Porto 15 community engaged with twenty-seven different associations, took part in twenty-one projects (leading one), and organized various public events. All of these initiatives received endorsement from both the municipal welfare service provider and the municipality, serving as showcases for the   collaborative housing model. Notably, the association joined the “European Collaborative Housing Day” in 2022, also hosting activities from local groups in the shared spaces.    Co-housing in the local urban regulation: a transformative impact? Porto 15 played a pivotal role in shaping the first normative definition of co-housing in Bologna, setting an example for the entire country.  While collaborative housing was vaguely mentioned in a 2014 regional law as an “integrated solution for local communities to meet their goals”, the Bologna building code introduced more precise principles for “collaborative and solidarity-based housing”. These principles explicitly aim to prevent speculation and promote environmental sustainability, fostering homogenisation among emerging projects falling under the co-housing label. Households involved in such projects are required to adhere to building and environmental sustainability principles. Additionally, they must actively participate in community actions, engage in the design and management of common spaces, share practices within the neighbourhood, and organize public events. Co-housing offspring in Bologna: a generative effect? The Housing Plan of Bologna incorporates a dedicated section for the development of new “collaborative and solidarity-based” public projects in the city, drawing inspiration from the pilot project of Porto 15. The emergence of second generation co-housing projects started with the Salus Space in 2019, a “collaborative village” funded by the European Union and characterized by a diverse governance model endorsed by the municipality. This new wave of projects aims to forge connections between collaborative housing and various policies, shaping a fresh narrative around collaborative housing. These policies prioritize environmental sustainability, with an upcoming co-housing project focusing on creating the first community energy collective for nearly zero-energy self-consumption in a public building. The second area of intervention emphasizes community building with an intergenerational and intersectional dimension, along with the development of a collaborative condominium. The third planned intervention involves awareness initiatives within co-housing for young people and families,  promoting efforts against organized crime. The overarching goal is to create a lasting inventory of affordable social housing, serving as a social catalyst for the territory.  The residents of Porto 15 plan to contribute to this vision by sharing their expertise with future residents of other collaborative projects. This will involve organizing conferences, extending invitations to shared activities, and participating in events organized by future co-housing groups. Public housing production in Italy faces the challenge of establishing secure financial channels. To achieve this goal, municipalities must devise solutions utilizing a range of financial resources, spanning from European to municipal levels, to ensure the successful development of collaborative housing projects. Looking forward, key strategies will entail incentivizing private investors to invest in social housing development and fostering a reflection on the role of social cooperation in affordable housing provision.

La Lleialtat Santsenca is a community managed municipal facility aiming to the promotion of culture, neighbourhood and cooperation. The space aspires to be a place of reference in the neighbourhood, hosting initiatives and activities open to everyone that promote community life through participation, strengthening the social bonds and creating networks and partnerships (La LLeialtat Santsenca, n.d.).   The historic context The original building, designed by the architect Josep Alemany i Juvé, was constructed in 1928 to host the Cooperativa Obrera La Lleialtat Santsenca, which was founded in 1891 and was one of the oldest working-class cooperatives in the neighbourhood of Sants. The building embodied the spirit of solidarity among the working class and became a hub for social exchange and socio-political activity, housing a food shop, a bakery, a café, a boardroom, small theatre and library, along with storerooms and administrative offices. (From Workers’ Cooperative to Civic Center, the Lleialtat Santsenca Building in Barcelona, n.d.).   During Franco’s regime, the building was expropriated and reopened in 1941 under Falangist management. In 1950 the cooperative was merged with another cooperative called La Flor de Maig and the building was used as a nougat factory -on the ground floor- and dance hall called Bahia -on the first floor-, becoming a musical landmark for the entire city of Barcelona during the 50s and 60s before eventually shut down by the Barcelona City Council in 1988. In December 2009, after years of abandonment, the building was reclaimed by sixty neighbourhood entities, who came together to recover it as a public asset (Somerville, 2020).   The coordination of the neighbourhood groups to reclaim this heritage asset occurred as a result of a long tradition of grassroot movements against urban regeneration plans, especially mobilised in the neighbourhood of Sants, such as the “Save Sants” in the 1970s (originally referred to as “Salvem Sants”). The 2008 crisis yield a renewed wave significantly directed towards the topic of alternative economies through neighbourhood-based associativism  (Somerville, 2020). In this breeding context, the neighbourhood of Sants retained a very active character, aiming to recover iconic, often industrial sites of heritage back to public use and social benefit, reviving the original principles of support and solidarity of the working-class populations.   The building renovation In 2012, BIMSA (Barcelona d’Infraesreuctures Municipals) launched a competition for the renovation of the building, that was won by the architectural studio H-Arquitectes. The renovation was based on three fundamental principles: highlighting the historic value of Lleialtat Santsenca; maintaining and reusing the maximum possible original building and materials; and embracing the collaborative processes driven by neighbourhood organisations of reclaiming and recovering the building. The restoration involved demolishing unusable elements while preserving structural bodies, creating a large central atrium for light, ventilation and visibility and incorporating features for sustainability, such as passive climate control, solar capture and minimal mechanical air conditioning. (Centre Cívic Lleialtat Santsenca 1214 - H ARQUITECTES, n.d.).   The legal context Along with a very active social movement towards associativism, Barcelona has a well-established history of public facilities managed by citizens’ associations. This has been facilitated through public-community collaboration that are established and protected by Article 43 of the “Carta Municipal de Barcelona” which states that:   “Non-profit citizen entities, organizations, and civic associations may exercise municipal competencies or participate on behalf of the City Council in the management of services or facilities whose ownership belongs to other public administrations. The civic management of municipal competencies can be used for activities and services that can be managed indirectly, is always voluntary and not-for-profit, and is awarded by public tender when there are several entities or organizations with identical or similar characteristics.” (Diari Oficial de La Generalitat de Catalunya, Carta Municipal de Barcelona, 1999, p. 219).   The principle of civic management has been further strengthened by the creation of networks of associations throughout Barcelona, such as the Plataforma de Gestió Ciutadana[1], which since 2009 is committed to protect and promote all the associations that manage or aspire to get involved in the management of a public facility. Another network of community-managed spaces is Xarxa D’espais Comunitaris (XEC) that coordinates different projects to promote transparency and mutual support through generating meeting points, training and self-organisation (XES - XEC, n.d.).   The community management Within this context, the space is managed by a nonprofit organisation, called Coordinadora d’Entitats per la Lleialtat Santsenca, consisted of neighbours, associations and collectives of Sants that share the values of cooperation, community action, respect and freedom. The sixty neighbourhood collectives are incorporated according to their scope in three lines of action: neighbourhood, culture and cooperation. The management model follows a democratic and transparent structure that consists of the Fòrum de la Lleialtat, a collective decision-making tool open to all neighbours and local organisations that wish to participate, as well as operating commissions responsible for community action, economic management, technological support, programming, communication and memory (La LLeialtat Santsenca, n.d.).   The services Lleialtat functions as a community center, offering various services organised from and in response to local needs. To begin with, the space itself is offered to neighbourhood collectives, either for regular use, in the annual cost of 50€, or for the organisation of special events, such as gatherings, celebrations and concerts, in an affordable cost. The flexibility and adaptability of the space makes it suitable to accommodate any kind of activity. The available spaces offered to the collectives include open-plan and multi-purpose rooms equipped with sound protection, seating and tables, lighting and presentation equipment; a big atrium that serves as an exhibition space as well as the seating area of the Lleialtat café; meeting rooms; a computer room; an auditorium; a terrace; a dance room; (La Lleialtat Santsenca, 2020) and a sustainable mobility vehicle (La LLeialtat Santsenca, n.d.).   As far as the individual neighbours are concerned, the space offers a café, a computer support space, a bank of resources, as well as the daily program organised by the collectives, such as art classes, theatre courses, dance lessons, guided tours, exhibitions and presentations, along with projects for sustainable consumption (La LLeialtat Santsenca, n.d.).   ---------- [1] See https://casaorlandai.cat/lassociacio/gestio-ciutadana/plataforma-de-gestio-ciutadana/