Cohousing as an alternative to the new habitational dynamics in Madrid city

Abstract

The lack of flexibility in regulations and housing policy has created the current
scenario in which, despite the large number of houses built in the past few years, the market
is still flat because existing housing does not provide answers to the demands of new social
groups or new habitational dynamics, and is still limited to classical, repetitive and not very
flexible typologies. Lifestyles keep evolving, while residential architecture seems to resist
evolving accordingly, changing the habits of residents within the same structure or typology of
housing designed for obsoletes lifestyles. Cohousing as an intentional, collaborative and
participatory appears like an alternative that could be an answer to these new habitational
dynamics. The main goal of this documentary research work, is to study the feasibility of
cohousing as an alternative to obsolete housing typologies, in order to respond to the demands
of contemporary habitational dynamics. To carry out this research, four main issues have been
taken into account: 1.- Study of the current housing typologies; 2.- Analysis and classification
of the existing social groups and their needs; 3.- Definition of cohousing; 4.- Analysis of the
adaptability of cohousing to the new habitational dynamics. From the results of this research,
we can conclude that cohousing provides solutions to many of the trends observed in current
lifestyles. Although it is not the solution to housing problems, it emerges as an alternative to
develop new housing typologies since their beginning as projects, until residents move to live
in, passing by all the participatory development of its future residents.