Together! The New Architecture of the Collective

Together! Explores a phenomenon that is being encountered with increasing frequency in recent years: people coming together to create affordable housing beyond the realm of speculation and predatory capitalism - be it in the form of building groups, cooperatives or other models of the collective building.

Together! Explores a phenomenon that is being encountered with increasing frequency in recent years: people coming together to create affordable housing beyond the realm of speculation and predatory capitalism – be it in the form of building groups, cooperatives or other models of the collective building.The last decade has seen a growing social movement towards collectivity, sharing and participation. This paradigm shift is reflected in architecture as well: In recent years, increasingly innovative collective housing projects, organized around the principle of trading in private spaces for larger, more luxurious shared spaces, have been emerging across the globe – many of them realized through bottom-up grassroots initiatives. The return of the collective in architecture has resulted in surprising architectural solutions that also create new urban spaces. The publication Together! The New Architecture of the Collective presents around twenty international building projects from Europe Japan, and the US that provide innovative platforms for collective living in the present day. A selection of projects are discussed in detail, ad extensive photo essays offer rich and vivid impressions of the daily collective and private lie and everyday routines in these buildings. Interviews with movers and shakers from the collective housing scene, written by international journalists, offer insights and background information on the processes and people that have made each project possible. All that is complemented by theoretical and historical context, including analytical essays by experts in the field, info graphics providing facts and figures, diagrams explaining how different collective housing models work, and an extensive timeline detailing genealogy of the collective housing movement in the twentieth century.