In 2024, BMA will promote cooperative housing in Brussels as a sustainable alternative to traditional rental and ownership models. To this end, we launched a call to both land or building owners and housing cooperatives (in the making) who have the ambition to realize a pilot project in Brussels. This initiative has led to several meetings where sector actors could exchange their ambitions and experiences.

On May 13, we brought together pioneers from Geneva, Rotterdam and Barcelona to hear how they tackled the main challenges of setting up a cooperative project. Topics included the need for cooperatives to gain political support to facilitate their efforts, the role of activism in building a critical mass favorable to project development, and the importance of co-design in achieving quality architectural solutions. On May 28, we further developed these focus points during a workshop using concrete situations and facilitated a dialogue between owners, cooperatives, and experts to understand the feasibility of pilot projects in Brussels.

The significant turnout at these initiatives has shown that interest in cooperative housing is real and that the desire to move towards realizations is shared by both owners and cooperators. They were able to express their ambitions through concrete situations and highlighted the difficulties that hinder the development of these projects. The recent memorandum from the COOPBXL coalition and the Coöperatiefwonen platform already contain a series of useful measures and experiences, two aspects that can contribute to a better understanding of the cooperative model with a view to developing new projects.

Starting in the fall, we want to build on these initiatives to realize pilot projects. To this end, we are organizing a new workshop in October, a good opportunity to develop concrete solutions for potential sites and to make further progress in building a dialogue between owners and housing cooperatives in Brussels.

More information will follow!