We are a member-developed cooperative (“Genossenschaft”) of freelancers, creatives, and small businesses. Small or single-person businesses face various challenges that our project tackles with a cooperative and participatory approach. Our goal is creating an innovative and affordable joint living and working space in Vienna’s Nordbahnviertel.
The idea
HausWirtschaft combines living and working in a radically mixed-use building: Future residents and tenants co-designed the building in a participatory process together with einszueins Architektur. This enables a flexible and functionally diverse architecture, which is unprecedented in Vienna’s subsidized housing program.
The founding team started with the idea of a house for small and single-person businesses and evolved it into a participative cooperative. Instead of working isolated in unsuited rooms, we build a community and affordable work spaces for those businesses. After moving in September 2023, around 250 people will live and work in the house. HausWirtschaft has its roots in the idea of participatory co-housing projects, but re-thinks them in the context of the New Work movement. Instead of just renting a space, the cooperative will be a driving force for the Nordbahnviertel, which is one of the largest inner-city development areas in Vienna.
Sharing as Coop
HausWirtschaft’s community approach supports sharing resources, rooms and services. Sharing has always been considered in three dimensions: equipment and tools, floor space, and time. Therefore, sustainability through shared spaces is a fundamental part of the project from the beginning. We are thinking in our cooperative like a traditional 200-person company providing workspace and services to its employees. But instead of employing people, HausWirtschaft will have 200 members and these members benefit from the overall size and power of the cooperative. In addition of reducing one’s own possessions with sharing offers, the circular economy is key to sustainable consumption. Our goal is keeping goods, materials and technical equipment as long as possible in a circular use.
Participative Planning
Participative planning workshops involved all of our members and developed tailor-made floor plans for a radically mixed-use building. The lower three levels are exclusive for non-residential use. They include a coworking space, a bi-lingual Kindergarten, various small office spaces, community spaces for collaboration, a health and feel-good area, a workshop for handcraft, and a shared reception in a spacious lobby. The ground floor offers an event hall for over 120 guests, a restaurant, and small shops. To emphasise the mixed-use aspect, nine guest rooms integrated in the permanent resident’s floors will be available for short-term rentals. These guest rooms will temporarily host project partners, friends, and relatives of HausWirtschaft’s members and underline the conjunction of work and live aspects of the project. A large green roof garden connects work and living areas and provides space to relax. In their free time residents can enjoy the view over the adjacent park in the 7th floor, which also offers a sauna and relax room. You see: There will be a lot happening in a single building!
