Co-Housing on the Periphery

As single households increase in prevalence, collective forms of living emerge as an alternative to family units. These models provide a wider range of options for meeting the social, psychological, and economic needs of residents. However, on the periphery, post-war housing for nuclear families struggles to accommodate these new habitation models.

The design uses the densification of the Nahversorgungszentrum Neu Wartenberg as an opportunity to bring new models of collective living to Neu Hohenschönhausen. Assuming a basic space allocation of thirty-four square meters per person, each of the three models includes various degrees of collective and private space. In addition to the residential functions, public commercial and cultural spaces are proposed, allowing the site to retain its important role as the commercial and social center of the neighborhood. The final design acknowledges the dual functions of the building, with the lower portion acting as a plinth and accommodating the larger spaces required of the commercial and cultural functions. By reducing the existing parking spaces and combining the formerly three low rise commercial buildings into one larger two-story volume, the overall building footprint on the site is reduced, allowing a portion of the site to be re-allocated as green space. The residential functions are accommodated above in four separate volumes, representing the three housing models as well a volume for collective amenities. The volumes are connected by gangways, which allow commination between the various housing forms as well as connections between the various building cores. Each volume provides a flexible framework in which several floor plans are possible for each housing model. This new typology of building allows not only for the more efficient use of the existing retail core but provides current and future residents Neu Hohenschönhausen with a wider range of housing models, better suited to the functional, social, psychological, and economic needs of single residents.