Da co-housing a co-neighborhood: la condivisione come generatrice di trasformazioni

Although the scenario is strongly heterogeneous, at times even inconsistent, the issue of “sharing” is undoubtedly one of the most current and challenging fields of study and planning. This is what emerges from an ongoing research of the Department of Architecture of Roma Tre University that - due to the involvement of various disciplines’ researchers – is conducted with a multidisciplinary approach. The research proposes theoretical and design reflections, which focus on the collective sense of living, with particular emphasis on broader contexts and different meanings of co-housing. Our country’s deep structural, social and economic changes, such as an aging population, immigration of vulnerable people, financial crisis, inaccessibility of the rental market and the temporary work conditions, bring a new framework for living needs, which the traditional ways of housing are not always able to legitimize consciously. The study based on more recent experience highlights how a co-housing project can contribute to formulate new axioms by mutual-aid models, social cohesion processes, tools of environmental protection and economic sustainability. The identity of contemporary living with its multiplicity and dynamism - that still recognizes and preserves the independence of each individual household - seems more and more characterized by a structure based on shared interests, spaces and services. Today we live more "out" from home than "inside", therefore expressions like “private” and “confidential”, together with their relationships, need to be investigated and redefined by exploring the issue’s new terms. The residence (co-housing) crosses the domestic dimension and becomes urban (coneighbourhood) with a complex of relationships that stimulates the growth of a sharing system, which in turn, generates transformations: a metamorphosis that can only affect the existing buildings, with the aim of regenerating the old city. It is indeed proved, that the development of the contemporary city cannot occur anymore through policies of expansion but through strategies that regenerate the consolidated parts: the architectural culture - that previously leant towards the new parts construction of the city - has to move towards the reorganization of the existing and the enhancement of the stratification. For these reasons, it is important to think about the construction of the already constructed and the recovery of the existing building heritage. However, it is necessary that the local authorities understand the potentialities of the redeveloping actions that a co-housing project (even of a small dimension) can generate on the cities. After proposing a critical thinking over the themes of co-housing, the paper offer a description of a virtuous Italian case study.