WHAT IS POLITICS?

START YOUR OWN HOUSING COOPERATIVE WITHOUT GOVERNMENT FUNDING! When I made my video on no-equity cooperatives (https://youtu.be/j6Q4GY3_Ip4), I believed that there was no way to establish an affordable one without government loans because of high land costs. Fortunately, I was incorrect! A good friend of mine actually helped build one from scratch in Amsterdam, and it was set up with private money *without* any buy-in from the founders/members! I was aware of the project the whole time but I just assumed it was government funded, but it wasn’t which means you can potentially do the same thing where you live! It was built from scratch and financed by various loans from banks, and other private organizations. The founding members helped build much of the inside, and it’s quite modern and beautiful, and very community oriented, child friendly, arts spaces, etc. Somehow this turns out to be affordable, which is helped by the fact that wealthier residents subsidize the poorer ones. If you want details on how this was done and to get pointed in the right direction to start your own coop, you can contact the coop via their website: www.dewarren.co The website is in dutch, but there should be someone that spreekts english there, or else use gargle translate. Because it’s successful, many other coops are being started on that model in europe, and I imagine it would also be possible in other places, but you’d have to find out the details and reach out to local organizations to know if that’s true or not where you are. There’s also a documentary about this coop (costs 8€ unfortunately): https://samenwonendefilm.nl/en/home/ and here’s a trailer: https://vimeo.com/872116044?fl=pl&fe=sh Here’s a blorb about the coop: De Warren is an innovative housing cooperative project located in Amsterdam. Completed in 2023, this sustainable and collective living development consists of 36 apartments for social housing. The project, designed in collaboration with Natrufied Architecture, is The Netherlands’ first self-build housing cooperative. The building’s design emphasizes community living, with 30% of its space dedicated to communal areas. These shared spaces, totaling approximately 800 square meters, include an auditorium, woodshop, theatre hall, a children’s playroom, a music studio, co-working spaces, bar, and sauna. A central ‘Machu Picchu’ staircase connects all floors, encouraging social interaction among residents. De Warren stands out for its commitment to sustainability. The building is energy-positive, with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of -0.16. It utilizes innovative features such as ‘energy piles’ for heating and cooling, solar panels, and extensive use of wood in construction. The facade is clad with reclaimed azobe wood, and the structure incorporates 330 cubic meters of wood, sequestering about 300 tons of CO₂. The project has gained recognition for its approach to sustainable urban living, winning the Amsterdam Architecture Prize in 2023. De Warren serves as a model for environmentally friendly, community-oriented housing in dense urban settings, demonstrating the potential of cooperative living and sustainable design in modern cities. For us, the pilot was a circular permaculture farm the collective built in southern Portugal ten years earlier, which was the breeding ground for the idea. De Warren was realized after winning a municipal tender from the City of Amsterdam, in response to both the housing crisis and the climate crisis. With us as the project developers, the project was financed through a mix of funding from German GLS Bank, sustainability funds and subsidies, crowdfunding, and the sale of bonds. The building is collectively owned by an association of residents. There is no private ownership: residents are their own landlords, homes cannot be sold on the private market, and all 36 units are permanently secured within a social and mid-rent housing model. The cooperative operates through a non-hierarchical governance structure inspired by holacracy. Every resident holds a mandate and contributes towards running the community within our social architecture (food forest and coop, internal subsidy systems, etc.) The development process was documented in a film, which was created as a practical toolkit in the hopes of supporting the replication of cooperative, sustainable housing projects.