The driving group, made up of residents of Granollers, has presented a project with extensive local support from entities of the social and solidarity economy, and with a social perspective, sustainable and rooted in the environment

Sostre Cívic has won the competition called by Granollers City Council to build and manage the first cooperative housing project in the municipality of Vallès. The competition, called in març by unanimous vote of the plenum, it envisages the building on the 800 m² municipal lot at Carrer Rosselló 97, in the Lledoner district. The assignment will be through a 75-year surface right. Once extinguished it will return to public ownership.

The jury's report was approved this week at the Municipal Plenum. This highlights the economic solvency of the project presented by Sostre Cívic, with the contribution of own resources and justified professional experience. The protocols and mechanisms for managing non-payments and the allocation of housing are very positively assessed, and the proposed shared mobility plan, based on shared bicycles and electric cars, is highlighted. "Sostre Cívic allots the ground floor to community and activity uses, thus strengthening the project's urban vocation", says the municipal report, which also mentions the proposed architectural design that takes into account minimizing maintenance and improving its state of conservation.

The winning project is valued at a total of 5,2 million euros, and has funding of €900.000 from the Next Generation Fund. The people who want to live there must meet the requirements for official housing applicants, be registered in Granollers and become partners of Sostre Cívic (requests will be ordered by membership seniority). In order to collaborate with the financing of the project, it is estimated that the members will have to contribute (at least) 20% of the total financing. This means that the partners who want to live there will have to make an initial capital contribution of 15.000 euros on average, which can be returned if the partners decide to leave the building at some point. The monthly installments, non-refundable and comparable to a rental, will be used to settle the financial debt and pay for the maintenance and common services of the building, and are expected to be approximately between €430 and €660 per month, depending on the size of the floor All these calculations will depend on the architectural project and final work budget.

In order to facilitate inclusion, the management of one of the 29 homes will be transferred to the City Council so that it can allocate to vulnerable groups. This apartment will be exempt from contributing the initial social capital.

Wide range and local support

The project, called El Cairó, will consist of 29 homes on the ground floor and 3 floors, with large shared communal spaces. From a terrace with collective laundry to a multipurpose room located on the ground floor, open to the outside, designed to be shared for neighborhood uses.

The project is driven by a dozen members of Sostre Cívic neighbors of Granollers. Since 2019, they have been developing actions in the municipality to publicize the housing cooperative model. Participating in fairs or giving different informative talks. Various studies have also been carried out with the city council to study the feasibility of developing projects on different municipal lots or farms to rehabilitate.

El Cairó also collects support from different local entities, from theAteneo Cooperative of Vallès Oriental I la Solidarity Economy Fair of Granollers, Until The Vallesana Pomegranate (association of organic producers and consumers of Granollers which groups 400 family units) i Granollers Pedal. These last two entities contemplate the possibility of being able to install the headquarters of their local projects in the commercial premises of the building.

Benjamí Aguilar, resident of Granollers and member of the Governing Council of the cooperative and the driving group ofEl Cairó, has declared his satisfaction with the fact that, finally, after years of work, a cooperative housing project in right of use arrives in the city as "an alternative access to housing to buying and renting, which fights against real estate speculation, guaranteeing collective ownership and with democratic management".

A sustainable building with shared mobility

The architectural project has been drawn up jointly by the offices of Ravetllat and Zaga. Both have extensive experience in social and cooperative housing projects. ravished will design the municipal rental housing in Font Verda de Granollers, and Back has been responsible for the pioneering cooperative housing project Clau Mestra in Sant Cugat, also managed by Sostre Cívic.

The construction will be made with low ecological footprint materials such as wood, which will be used for the structure. The building will be equipped with photovoltaic panels, aerothermia, recycling of gray water and rainwater. The facilities will be centralized, in line with the collective ownership model and for the advantages it entails in terms of cost and energy efficiency. El Cairó, in addition, is committed to sustainable mobility with ten car spaces and collective electric bicycles, breaking the norm of one parking space per home. These vehicles will be managed in collaboration with We are Mobility, in a pioneering inter-cooperation agreement between a housing cooperative and another shared mobility cooperative.

Once Sostre Cívic is already awarded the plot to develop the promotion, it will be up to him to close the architectural project and the financing before starting the campaign to incorporate interested people who want to join the current driving group, scheduled for the fall of this year . The works will start in the summer of 2024, and the partners will enter in 2026.