In recent years, new housing cooperatives have emerged in Barcelona in response to the housing emergency. A non-speculative alternative, based on collective ownership of the building, where the role of the community becomes a distinguishing feature in overcoming the conditions and limitations of conventional developments.
Given that the housing challenge is cyclical, this route aims to trace genealogies with a selection of works in the city that contribute to thinking about the real possibilities of cooperative housing architecture today. These are projects that arise from different socio-political, economic or environmental motivations, but are united by a thread of continuity in terms of their attitude of breaking with the established order.
We begin with Casa Bloc (1932), where the ideological and revolutionary proposals of GATCPAC were brought to life. An experimental model of minimal housing for the working class that follows the guidelines of the modern movement, with communal spaces and services for the well-being of residents. Fast forward to the 1960s, when the emergence of cooperatives in housing construction grew to provide their members with affordable housing of a quality that was difficult to find on the market. Many of the cases were self-promoted, characterised by a search for austere solutions that focused on the subject and future inhabitant. This is the case of the Lepant II Cooperative Building (1961-1964), by MBM, or some of Emili Donato‘s early works, such as the houses in Vallcarca and the houses on Carrer de Rosselló.
Experimentation continued with Studio PER in Casa Fullà (1966-1970), a project that was in tune with the cultural and political turmoil of the time. Or the Frégoli Building (1972-1975) by Esteve Bonell, another good example of this fertile environment open to new ways of living. Contemporary to these works is the residential building on Avinguda Coll del Portell (1971-1976), where Francesc Rius proposes a bold technological language accompanied by an innovative environmental sensitivity. This line will continue in the discreet work of the homes on Carrer de Sant Cugat (1982).
Fast forward to the present day, and the prominence and future prospects of this housing alternative are exemplified by La Borda (2018) and La Chalmeta (2022), two of the cooperatives already built under a transfer of use agreement, with many more in the planning and construction stages.
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