Last Thursday the 3rd we celebrated for the third consecutive year, our day of debate around architecture as a tool for social transformation. The conference has become an annual event in which we stop the machines for a few hours, and do a more theoretical and leisurely reflection on architectural practice and its dialectical imprint on social progress.

As in previous conferences, the object of this year's debate was not so much to talk about architecture itself, in terms of morphology or technique, but about how architecture can be transformative in social terms: in the empowerment of women citizens, in changes in the ways of living and relating, to create and maintain social cohesion, equity, etc. And this year, we wanted to focus the discussion on a topic that we are passionate about: the participation of users in the design and, even, the construction of cooperative housing. A pending and recurring debate in the architectural debate since the 60s, but which in the last decade has re-emerged strongly, and a good example of this are the projects we develop in our cooperative. The more than 100 people registered for this debate proves that people are eager to learn and talk!

The first presentation was d'Inés de Rivera, architect, teacher and researcher. She is a founding partner of STEM architects and, among other things, member of the Territory and Landscape research group at Rovira i Virgili University. His intervention begins with an introduction of the different historical experiences where the buildability of housing has been done taking into account the balance between community and individual. Then she gets into the subject matter and explains the participatory process between her, as an architect, and the group of people who use one of the cooperative housing projects of Sostre Cívic: the one Cal Paler Nou, in Cardedeu, which is now precisely in the promotion phase.

The participatory process in Cardedeu took into account the use of the building as a whole by its future inhabitants: from the street, the common spaces of relationship... to the coexistence units. Also the diversity of people who will live there, with special attention for children (with specific pedagogical practices). In one of the workshops, each coexistence space was even reproduced on a 1:1 scale, on the floor of a sports hall, inviting the participants to furnish and distribute their own spaces. These workshops were not only used to design the common spaces of the building but also put the materials on the table, so that the users knew the range of options available and chose which ones they were most comfortable with.

Rivera's intervention ends up raising a doubt about, precisely, the title of the day: is architecture a tool for social transformation? Or, conversely, is architecture the one that must live up to the challenges posed by social transformation?

Secondly, he is speaking from Geneva (Switzerland). Stéphane Fuchs, founding architect and director of theAtba architecture team, which has been working since 1999 with a philosophy that integrates architecture, ecology and the active participation of the future inhabitants of its projects. During his intervention he tells us the participatory process of a housing cooperative in Switzerland, from their conception to the moment of cohabitation.

The experience he brings to the debate is a large building near the center of Geneva, with 38 coexistence units on six floors and commercial premises. The initiative starts from different groups of people interested in building cooperative housing on a public lot that the local government gave them. Fuchs explains that the requests of the group of future cohabitants were very ambitious and focused, above all, on environmental aspects (water treatment, energy use, minimizing car spaces, lifts, etc.). It must be taken into account that the Swiss state puts budget limits on new constructions, which was quite a challenge to make a building as ambitious as the group wanted.

140 workshops were held, with special emphasis on discussing sustainable materials with the environment. The result is a 100% efficient building, with a single elevator and three systems of stairs with many interior streets to facilitate the meetings of the people who live there; breathable facades with 2000 straw bales and boxes built on site; 150 parking spaces for bicycles and only 15 for cars. currently the people who live there manage all maintenance independently and Fuchs himself, he explains, has his architectural office in the same building that he designed! In full harmonious coexistence with the neighbors, satisfied with the final result.

And finally, to complete the series of international experiences, we cross the Atlantic to Uruguay with Raúl Valles. Architect, teacher, researcher and consultant, his work has focused particularly on housing cooperatives, where he has been an advisor and author of projects. Also from the public administration such as Directorate of Housing of the Ministry of Housing of Uruguay. He talks to us about the cooperative reality, participation and self-construction in Uruguay, where participation is not an option: it is regulated by law!

The cooperative movement has a long tradition of urban social mobilization and vindication in its country. The role of the State is very important to understand the broad development of cooperative housing in Uruguay. Co-operativeism has been the main policy of social housing for years by many progressive governments: both in access to land and in the financing of quotas. The Ministry of Housing of Uruguay regulates cooperative housing, and requires the collective self-management of housing projects to issue certifications and have the ability to access financing. Also, the same ministry centralizes technical support for architectural projects. Same as a Sostre Cívic, the cooperative housing is under the "right of use" regime. There, the collective ownership of all the projects is developed through "mutual support": a process of collective self-construction where the contribution to the work effort of the participants is another economic value that is integrated into the project cost. This process is an inclusive process, with a focus on gender and the integration of different capacities.

Vallés complements his approach to the framework in which cooperative housing moves in Uruguay by commenting different methodological tools for participatory action and co-design. Through, as was also explained in the different presentations of the day, different workshops where all dimensions must be addressed: the home itself, the collective habitat and the relationship with the environment. He ends his speech by exemplifying concrete decisions derived from collective participation in cooperative housing projects in the South American country.

The debate ended with different questions that the attendees passed on to the speakers, such as how cooperative housing works with care within the community. You can retrieve it on video here:

This activity is carried out with the support of Barcelona City Council, and is part of the "Architecture as a tool for social transformation" project