This October, the Цenter for New Cooperative Housing – founded by MOBA members Pametnija Zgrada and KO GRADI GRAD – organised a festival of cooperative housing in Belgrade, leaning on the inspiring example of the City of Barcelona. In the past 15 years, Barcelona experienced a transformation of the housing sector through new forms of community organising, an innovative spirit of architectural design, and local authorities playing a key role in creating supportive housing policies.
The festival encompassed a series of events centred around the exhibition “HOW AND WHERE WILL WE LIVE? – Belgrade meets Barcelona’s wave of novel cooperative housing” – a result of cooperation with the Barcelona City Council, the Barcelona Municipal Institute for Housing and Renovation, and the architectural cooperative Lacol. Through lectures, guided tours of the exhibition, workshops and work sessions for local experts and the wider public, over 200 participants learned about the realities and discussed the potential of cooperative housing. As part of the guided tours, MOBA members from Hungary, Croatia and Serbia presented their pilot projects, challenges, and both short-term and long-term plans against the backdrop of Barcelona’s inspiring example.
Together with guests from Barcelona, friends, colleagues, experts, a wider circle of interested citizens, and potential future residents of Serbia’s first housing cooperative, we explored the potential of cooperative housing, the importance of the present moment for laying the foundations for the housing cooperative movement to gain momentum in Serbia, and the far-reaching, transformative impact it can have on our cities.
In this incentivizing atmosphere, we also held internal MOBA meetings, work sessions, and participated in a workshop on participatory design methods. The exhibition and festival established a broader dialogue about cooperative housing in Belgrade and beyond – and provided space for connecting, reflecting and organising for a world we want to live in!
