Home in the Office

The thesis analyses the shift in working and dwelling arrangements, ownership alternatives and affordable housing. The transformation of office buildings is considered as an opportunity to redefine 21st century development. The project offers an alternative to empty office towers through community-led housing and public space improvements.

The objective of the thesis is to make housing more accessible and reduce segregation, to fill empty office spaces with a new purpose and promote alternative forms of ownership. The cornerstone of the project is the shift in the form of housing ownership, with more examples popping up throughout Europe. To achieve this, the reins of the urban space must fall into the right hands. A speculative developer must partly be replaced by the city or anti-speculative developer, such as the cooperative. The shared ownership form, or cooperative, makes housing more attractive in several ways. Firstly, such housing values democracy, where members with equal voting rights own, control and manage, realising common economic, social, and cultural needs. At the same time, such a system frees the individual from greater responsibility, since the loan and the related burden are shared by the cooperative. It also ensures flexibility for the residents, because the monthly payment depends on the size of the apartment. In addition, the cooperative option is also cheaper, since the described system is not intended to generate income, while the developer does not have a VAT requirement. The city could also play its part, helping to find plots of land to rent to cooperatives and receiving municipal apartments in return.\nThe redefined old office building covered in the thesis, offers cluster apartments with both private and shared spaces, to find a more efficient use of space’s potential. The building will also include municipal apartments, workspaces for creative/industrial/office work and units to rent out to private enterprises. The surrounding district will become more human-friendly, making it greener, more accessible and permeable. The project could serve as a wider development model for cities dealing with any of the particular problems. From this project, emerges a wider usage model, that could be applied on the building, block and city scale. If the city adopts this strategy, cooperatives would become a network, making it possible for the residents to change their dwelling all across the network.