This week we will look back on ^HousingFutures’ 2017. Today we focus on collaborative housing and tenant engagement.

Collaborative housing is the new buzz word among citizens of Europe’s biggest cities. With a reason. In our article about the ‘Urbanpromo Social Housing’ conference, we summarize Darinka Czischke’s (assistant professor, TU Delft) speech, poining out that it solves a number of issues that mainstream housing providers can’t. Czischke sees collaborative housing as a source of disruptive innovation into mainstream housing provision.

The topic was also addressed in our article about the Collaborative Housing workshop at the International Social Housing Festival. Also we shared articles about  innovative practises in Italy and Denmark.

Also the architecture of co-living was addressed at the ISHF, in Ilka Ruby’s keynote speech of the Housing Europe conference. Soon after we shared an article on her findings.

Finally we shared a few interviews with practitioners and researchers. Josh Crites’ article on Milan based Fondazione Housing Sociale (FHS) work is a must read for anyone interested in collaborative housing.

Also Alix Goldstein’s interview with David Mullins, professor at Birmingham University, indicates that tenant engagement is improving public and social housing in many ways. ‘it can be seen as a rebalancing of power between governments, market, and community so that housing organisations can make more effective contributions to meeting society’s need for housing as a platform for social progress.’ he explains.