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Collective housing (CH) is undergoing a revival in Belgium. Since 2009, the Flemish Government Architect and his team have been advocating CH, stressing its importance as a task for architects given the demand for affordable housing and the need to reduce the environmental impact of housing. This support for CH has converged with the work of the non-profit citizen organization Samenhuizen (“Living together”) and the ad hoc initiatives taken by individual households and architects. In the Netherlands too, where there is a longer tradition of CH, the phenomenon is once more on the rise because of the housing crisis. As it is a developing topic, the terminology used for CH is also evolving. Drawing on publications on the subject in both Belgium and the Netherlands as well as on interviews with relevant stakeholders, this article sheds light on two widely published cases in both countries (pioneering and current, greenfield and conversion). These cases are compared in regard to thematic areas, based on an extensive literature study on collaborative housing by Lang et al. (2018). In addition to such aspects as the balance between “individuality” and the “collective,” we compare the role played by architects in both countries. Besides similarities, we show that the historical context, and especially the housing policy of each country, has a great influence and that the role of the architect is essential in the development of older and contemporary cohousing projects.

Many studies have explored the dynamics of immigrant and refugee settlement at the local level, highlighting that it is actually a two-way process: On the one hand, the local socio-political context specifies the conditions for refugee inclusion, and on the other, migrant mobility leads to the transformation of localities in various ways. In Greek cities, the social practices of local actors have played an important role in the implementation of the immigration policy, where refugees were perceived as a threat to personal and community security. Yet, new forms of social mobilisation and solidarity by individual citizens and community initiatives have worked to alter these attitudes, mitigating tensions and obstacles in refugee acceptance. The article draws on the Greek experience to explore the role and importance of the local socio-political texture in refugee inclusion, shedding light on how it gave rise to various local initiatives that inform refugee allocation as well as urban transformation and institutional change. In methodological terms, the article considers three neighbouring Greek cities as case studies to identify the different institutional and policy responses to refugee accommodation, giving rise to different paths and forms of social inclusion. The study reveals the complexity and context of the social-spatial diversity that refugees face but also the transformation dynamics of local states and civil society.The paper draws on the Greek experience to explore the role and importance of social infrastructure in refugee integration, shedding light on how these qualities, materialized in local initiatives for refugee integration to influence urban transformation and institutional change. In methodological terms, the paper employs three small and medium-size Greek cities as case studies to identify the different institutional and policy responses to refugee accommodation followed, giving rise to different paths and forms of social inclusion and urban transformation. The study reveals the complexity and the contextuality of the social spatial diversity that refugees face but also the transformation of local states and civil society.

International audience; This article aims to show how the concept of housing need has circulated between the social sciences and architectural design fields in France since the second half of the 19th century up until today. France is a particularly rich example for developing this sociohistorical overview over a long span of time, through three time periods : the beginning of housing policy which, during the hygienist period and in legal devices and statistics defining "good housing" as opposed to inadequate housing; the debate surrounding the notion of need illustrated through an examination of mass construction since the beginning of the 1950s, in particular that of large social housing estates which developed in response to the housing crisis and the increase of slums; the contemporary period that raises many questions faced by architects and urban planners concerning the persistence of forms of inadequate housing and the development of individual aspirations for well-being.; Cet article montre comment le concept de besoin en logement a circulé entre les champs des sciences sociales et de la conception architecturale en France depuis la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle jusqu'à aujourd'hui. La France est un exemple particulièrement riche pour développer ce panorama socio historique sur un temps long, à travers trois périodes : le début de la politique du logement qui, à l'époque hygiéniste et dans les dispositifs juridiques et statistiques définit le " bon logement " par opposition au mal logement ; le débat autour de la notion de besoin illustré par l'examen de la construction de masse depuis le début des années 1950, notamment celle des grands ensembles sociaux qui se sont développés en réponse à la crise du logement et à la multiplication des bidonvilles ; la période contemporaine qui soulève de nombreuses questions auxquelles sont confrontés les architectes et les urbanistes concernant la persistance des formes de mal logement et le développement des aspirations individuelles au bien-être.

Globalised neoliberalism does not unify urbanisation processes but rather varies according to local contexts. This article explores the unique neoliberalisation process in large urban developments that have contributed to Seoul becoming a global city. Not only has the formal process of privatisation been important but also the vernacular practice of the ordinary people has informally grown during the process. By establishing a matured market of the mass production and consumption of high-rise apartments since the 1970s, more than half of the housing stock is now composed of high-rise apartments in South Korea. Gangnam represents the wealthiest district shifting from rural sites to highly dense urban areas due to their large-scale high-rise developments. Not only have societal changes made way for super-high-density apartment complexes as a rational response to population and economic growth, high-rise developments have also allowed Seoul to grow its population and expand its spatial footprint. Because of the dominance of universal western knowledge, this phenomenon has not been fully understood. While neoliberalism has been broadly adopted, the actual development process in Korea is distinctive not only from the West but also the East. The article argues that ‘vernacular neoliberalism’ has evolved not just by the formality of the ideological market system but also by the informality of survival practices of Korean lives largely under the colonial period and the aftermath of the Korean War. It particularly shows how large urban developments have been widespread by integrating a vernacular private rental system called chonsei into the formal structure.

In the 1970s, the participation of citizens in processes of urban renewal was championed by several North-European municipalities as an attempt to re-connect housing policies with their social significance. The main goal was to bring together the city and its citizens, collective interests and individual aspirations. Citizens’ participation was used as an instrument to bridge the gap between the planner/designer and the citizen/user. This article examines a case that illustrates the threats and opportunities brought about by this new paradigm in design decision-making. The article discusses the design process of the Punt en Komma housing complex, a project designed by Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza, developed between 1984 and 1988 as part of the urban renewal of the Schilderswijk district, a neighbourhood in the Dutch city of The Hague. The article is divided into two parts. The first part examines Siza’s plan for Schilderswijk’s sub-area 5 (deelgebied 5) and establishes the background against which citizens’ participation played a role in the urban renewal of the district. In the second part, the article examines Álvaro Siza’s project for the Punt en Komma housing blocks in detail, focusing particularly on the participatory design of the layout for the dwelling units. Using Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model of communication, this article concludes by highlighting the importance of using a negotiated code to enable meaningful communication in citizens’ participation.

Housing markets play a decisive role in the spatial distribution of populations and the integration of immigrants. Looking specifically at Germany, shortages of low-rent housing in many cities are proving to be an open door for discrimination. This article looks at the influence institutional housing providers have on migrants’ access to housing. Based on 76 qualitative interviews with housing experts, politicians, local government officials, civil society and academics, the internal routines of housing companies are examined for the first time in a German context, looking at what effect they have on producing socio-spatial inequality. Using Lipsky’s (1980) ‘street-level bureaucracy’ as our conceptual framework, we argue that the barriers denying migrants access to the rental housing market are attributable to two factors: the organisational culture, whether in the form of official guidelines (’policy as written’) or in day-to-day activities in the front-line context (‘policy as performed’) – as well as in the huge gap between the two. Corporate policies, the resultant allocation policies, staff training and housing company involvement in local governance structures play a decisive role in determining migrants’ access to housing. The goal of achieving the right social mix and the lacking guidelines accorded to housing company staff in deciding who gets an apartment – turning their discretionary power into a certain kind of ‘forced discretion’ – in many cases arbitrarily restrict access to housing in Germany. Theoretically embedding these findings in organisational sociology, the article adds to urban geographical and sociological research into the drivers and backgrounds of residential segregation.

The article examines how the German city of Leipzig governs the housing of asylum seekers. Leipzig was a frontrunner in organizing the decentralized accommodation of asylum seekers when adopting its accommodation concept in 2012. This concept aimed at integrating asylum-seeking persons in the regular housing market at an early stage of arrival. However, since then, the city of Leipzig faces more and more challenges in implementing the concept. This is particularly due to the increasingly tight situation on the housing market while the number of people seeking protection increased and partly due to discriminating and xenophobic attitudes on the side of house owners and managers. Therefore, we argue that the so-called refugee crisis of 2015–2016 has to be seen in close interaction with a growing general housing shortage in Leipzig like in many other large European cities. Furthermore, we understand the municipal governing of housing as a contested field regarding its entanglement of diverse federal levels and policy scales, the diversity of stakeholders involved, and its dynamic change over the last years. We analyze this contested field set against the current context of arrival and dynamic urban growth on a local level. Based on empirical qualitative research that was conducted by us in 2016, Leipzig’s local specifics will be investigated under the umbrella of our conceptual framework of Governance of Arrival. The issues of a strained housing market and the integration of asylum seekers in it do not apply only to Leipzig, but shed light on similar developments in other European Cities.

Since 2015, Europe has experienced an unprecedented influx of people fleeing countries facing political turmoil. Upon receiving asylum status, refugees in the Netherlands are currently regionally dispersed and individually housed in public housing. The municipality of Amsterdam has recently adopted an alternative approach, whereby young adult refugees and Dutch young adults are brought together in collaborative housing (Czischke, 2018). This article presents findings from a case study of the pilot project, launched in 2016, which houses over 500 young adults, half refugees and half Dutch together in temporary dwellings. The goal is to provide refugees with social and cultural tools to integrate in the host society by interacting with their peers through collective self-organisation. Compared with more traditional forms of housing refugees, integration through collaborative housing is expected to deliver results. Our study aims to examine this assumption by looking at the daily reality of collaboration and self-organisation amongst tenants in this pilot project, and interrogates how this approach may help the integration process. The analytical framework draws on Ager and Strang’s (2008) core domains of integration, which emphasises the role of social connections in the integration process. An ethnographic research design was adopted, including interviews and participant observation as data collection techniques. Preliminary findings indicate the gradual formation of social connections such as social bonds, social bridges and social links. Ultimately, we expect findings to inform better policies and practices in the field of housing and urban planning that help the integration of young refugees in European societies.