Knowing first hand how it is to live in a cooperative home and listening to the advice of the experts when starting a project of this nature is the basis of the eight radio episodes that have promoted CRÍTIC, Sostre Cívic and Habicoop 

What are the keys to cooperative housing? How is it different from renting or buying? Can it be an alternative to the current real estate model? What are the ways to get funding? How can you start a cooperative housing project? These are some of the questions that the eight chapters of The keys, the new podcast series they've powered CRITIC, the cooperative Sostre Cívic and the Federation of Housing Cooperatives of Catalonia (Habicoop) to explain how to live in a housing cooperative and what needs to be done to promote one. 

The CRÍTIC journalist Laura Aznar is the host of the episodes, which can now be listened to in the open on the main podcast platforms like Spotify o Ivoox. Each of the episodes, about twenty minutes long, addresses the big questions about co-operative housing: what, who, how, where, when, how much, why i this way. To talk about it, Aznar visits eight cooperative housing experiences from all over Catalonia and, subsequently, meets with different experts to resolve technical, economic or organizational doubts about everything that involves starting a process to live in cooperative housing. 

'The keys' is the first radio project that we promote CRÍTIC i Sostre Cívic together with Habicoop. Since 2017, however, both cooperatives have fed the blog with journalistic content.Sostre Crític' in which reports and interviews are published periodically about the latest developments in cooperative housing. 

The journey to living in a cooperative home

Podcasts allow you to learn first-hand how the people who integrate different cooperative projects live. Thus, you can listen to already consolidated initiatives such as that of Houses are needed, in Santa Maria d'Oló (Bagés), pioneers of cooperative housing in right of use or The Board, a self-organized project in the Sants neighborhood in Barcelona. But also projects that have recently lived together, as is the case with Cirerers in the Roquetes neighborhood of Barcelona or the rural housing group of the Turrós in Argelaguer (La Garrotxa). And, finally, a voice is also given to groups that are remodeling their houses like the ones seniors de Walden XXI in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, the urban farmhouse of Clau Mestra in La Floresta, the small cooperative project of The Network in the Barceloneta neighborhood or the group of Subtract who is just starting to walk to live together in Sants. Beyond visiting different co-housing in operation, the podcasts also provide useful information for those interested in the co-operative housing model through conversation with experts and members of other co-operative projects. They speak from architects of Celobert or the Dynamo Foundation, up to technicians who accompany cooperative housing processes of Sostre Cívic o To live, passing through economists from Coop57 i Fiare-Ethical Banking, two ethical finance entities that have accompanied many of the active cooperative projects. In the conversations, members of cooperative projects who are starting to walk as La Chalmeta (in the neighborhood of La Marina del Prat Vermell in Barcelona), The Renegade (Vallès Oriental), The purple (in the Roquetes neighborhood of Barcelona), Can 70 (in the Sarrià district of Barcelona) or the projects of TEB Housing.

Chapter guide

Chapter 1. What is this cooperative housing?

In this episode we visit Houses are needed, the first rental housing cooperative in Catalonia, which is located in the municipality of Santa Maria d'Oló, in Bages. With Iolanda, a member of the project, we walk around the farmhouse while she tells us how the beginnings of the project were and how they live almost 20 years later. Then, at the experts' table, we meet the Gloria Rubio Casas, member of the Dynamo, a foundation that works for the implementation of the cooperative housing model in right of use, and theEva Ortigosa, project coordinator of Sostre Cívic, a cooperative that also works for cooperative housing in right of use. With them we resolve doubts about what is (and what is not) cooperative housing.

Chapter 2. When does the process to access cooperative housing begin and when does it end?

In this episode we consider a The Network, a small housing cooperative of eight family units in the Barceloneta neighborhood of Barcelona. Lis and Esther, two of the driving forces, tell us how they made the decisions to rehabilitate the building and make it more sustainable. At the expert table, we gather the Gloria Rubio Casas, member of La Dinamo Foundation; theEva Ortigosa, Sostre Cívic, and the David Lorente, partner of La Chalmeta, a self-organized housing cooperative located in the Marina del Prat Vermell neighborhood in Barcelona. With them, we will meet els times management of a cooperative housing project.

Chapter 3. Who drives these projects?

In this episode we visit Clau Mestra, an urban farmhouse project that is just starting to walk in the old houses of the teachers in La Floresta (Sant Cugat del Vallès). Joana and Jordi, two of its promoters, show us the works of the building while explaining the various hurdles they have overcome to make the project a reality. At the expert table, we meet the Maria Josep Lázaro, partner of the Perviure cooperative, which supports collective and cooperative housing processes; the Martí Prat, member of the Casa Alternativa Association, and the project coordinator of Sostre Cívic, Eva Ortigosa, to resolve doubts about who promotes cooperative housing projects.

Chapter 4. Where are they driven?

In this episode we visit El Turrós, a rural cooperative housing located in Argelaguer, la Garrotxa. Mireia and Anna, two of the promoters of the project, tell us that their model goes beyond living together: the land around the house also serves them to promote an agroecological self-sufficiency initiative with the neighbors. At the expert table, we gather the Maria Josep Lázaro, worker and partner of Perviure, and the Gloria Rubio Casas, member of the Dinamo Foundation, for learn about different models and locations of cooperative housing projects.

Chapter 5. Who are they meant for?

In this episode we visit Walden XXI, a senior project in Sant Feliu de Guíxols. Joan, Rosa and Glòria, three members of the group, explain, while walking around the facilities of their new house, why cooperative housing is a good alternative to private residences for the elderly. At the expert table, we meet the Silvia Fernandez, partner of The purple, a cooperative housing still in process that hosts buns, tranny and other dissident identities in the Roquetes neighborhood of Barcelona; with theAnna Corrons, partner of Can 70, the first cooperative senior housing in Barcelona; also with the Pepa Munoz, member of the cooperative group TEB, which promotes cooperative housing for people with functional diversity, and with the member of Sostre Cívic Eva Ortigosa.With all of them we analyze for whom cooperative housing is made and all the possibilities that open up for diverse groups that have been made invisible.

Chapter 6. Why are they important?

In this episode we visit Subtract, a cooperative housing project that has just acquired a public plot of land for use in the Bordeta neighborhood of Barcelona. One of its members, Lorenzo, tells us why more projects like his are needed in an era of strong real estate speculation. At the panel of experts, we talk to theEva Ortigosa, member of Sostre Cívic, and with the Nora Ancarola, partner of The Renegade, a feminist cooperative housing project that has just sprouted in Santa Maria de Palautordera. Together we analyze why it is important to promote cooperative housing projects.

Chapter 7. How are the processes accompanied?

In this episode we visit The Board, a cooperative housing in the Bordeta neighborhood of Barcelona, ​​where sixty residents have lived together for more than five years. One of them, Ernest, shows us the facilities and explains how coexistence works between them all. At the panel of experts, we will talk with the Lali Daví, architect of The cabbage and activities coordinator of La Dinamo Fundació; with theÀngel Estévez, partner of Sostre Cívic, and also with Diego Carrillo, member of the cooperative of architects Celobert. With them, we will have a conversation about how cooperative housing projects are supported.

Chapter 8. How much does it cost?

In this last episode we visit Cirerers in the Roquetes neighborhood of Barcelona, ​​a cooperative building that opened a few months ago. We talk about the entire construction process of this project with Homera and Jennifer, two of the building's residents. At the expert table, we have the Lali Daví, Lacol architect and member of La Dinamo Fundació; the David Guàrdia, project coordinator of Sostre Cívic; the Guillem Fernandez, economist and member of Coop57, and theAlvar Sanz member of Fiare Banca Ètica. We will analyze with all of them what are the costs of cooperative housing.