The social economy sector is in luck! It has been established La Constructiva, the first not-for-profit service cooperative oriented towards the construction of cooperative housing in right of use, driven by Sostre Cívic.

Construction management is a key element in the housing development process and is a service that, until now, has not been offered by the social economy entities that operate in this sector. Faced with the challenge of taking on the management of our newly built rental housing projects in Barcelona (La Balma i Els Cirerers), Sostre Cívic is considering responding to this need from the social economy and is therefore promoting the creation of a new cooperative construction company.

La Constructiva wants to promote the construction of ethical and social housing, in order to promote the social and sustainable economy in the Catalan construction sector under three values:

• Ethical construction: Users can influence the process of contracting and negotiating all the conditions (economic, deadlines, security, etc.) from the promotion, generating a cleaner, more transparent and fairer mediation framework.

• Social construction: The establishment of an own construction company is the mechanism to benefit the companies of the social economy in the sector, reducing subcontracting, and facilitating construction at a fair price in an environment of salary and productive commitment.

• Sustainable construction: We work with housing cooperatives in right of use that have made a commitment to promote projects with criteria of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.

It is, in short, to reverse the current construction model by opting for a construction that respects ethical values ​​in a framework of managed, controlled and reliable economic production.

What are the objectives of La Constructiva?

1. Aline
   Be able to build incorporating parameters of the social economy and sustainability, collaborating in promoting the model.

2. Facilitate promotion
   To be an instrument that helps guarantee the ability to respond from cooperativeism to the challenges of housing cooperatives and others.

3. Promote feasibility
   Thanks to the synergies with the developer and the transparency between the group's cooperatives, repetitive tasks and expenses are eliminated and construction costs are adjusted.

4. Close the circle
   The margin obtained for not having a profit motive and to reduce expenses can be allocated to different purposes: reinvestment in the construction company, internal and third-party training, reduction of costs for users...

​A new actor in the social economy

We are very happy to have been part of the constitution of this cooperative, an initiative designed from and for the social economy. The official presentation of this new project took place on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 at the College of Appraisers, during the debate "Criteria for an ethical, social and sustainable construction".

An interesting proposal where we worked on three specific axes to deepen how to achieve a construction more aligned with the values ​​of the social economy: first, that of the collaborative economy versus the competitive economy in construction; secondly, the challenge of aligning suppliers with the social economy; and, finally, that of talent and people, to guide professional careers and align them with activism and militancy.

You can find the streaming we did during the event in this link.

This project has been promoted in the context of the 2016-2017 Cooperative Universities Unique Projects promoted by the Department of Work, Social Affairs and Families and the General Directorate of Social Economy, the third sector, Cooperatives and Self-Employment with funding from the Ministry of Employment and Social Security.