Neighborhood rebuilding centers: imagining a more cooperative future for urban rust belt neighborhoods

Abstract

Cohousing and coliving are two housing forms that aim to address loneliness and encourage better social connection through shared common spaces and intentional community design. These housing concepts have not yet taken root in one setting with great need for improved social connection: the urban neighborhoods of post-industrial cities in the United States. This architectural thesis project examines the history of collective self-organized housing movements through case studies in Modernist existenz minimum, Danish bofellesskop, Rust Belt mutual housing, American cohousing, German baugruppen, global coliving, and Swiss real estate cooperatives. A master plan for a city block adjacent to downtown Dayton, Ohio proposes two cohousing clusters connected to a neighborhood-scale community center with attached coliving units. The design addresses the loss of recreational amenities in struggling urban centers by opening the cohousing common house as a center for the broader community, along with integrated workspaces, workshops, and studios that reflect the changing nature of work in this region. By imagining a development vision that fulfills an untapped desire for greater community connectedness without sacrificing private space, Rust Belt cities can leverage their plentiful land and lead the way in shaping a new ideal to which Americans can aspire.