Examples of Co-Housing in Vienna and the Potentials of Co-Habitation in Budapest

Text: Annamária Babos, Petra Horogh, Katalin K. Theisler
Photos: Annamária Babos

Housing projects sponsored in Vienna, as well the experience gained from former attempts of creating forms of co-housing brought about a flourishing of the implementation of communal habitation projects in the past 15 years. In comparison, the situation of co-housing in Budapest is still in its early stage: at present getting to know the topic itself, the creation of communities, the preparation to establish its legal, financial conditions and surveying their market potentials is going on. This study is a link in this chain which supports the publicity and the spread of co-housing in Hungary based on the experiences the group Living in a Community gained in Vienna, which is shown as an exemplary good practice via 3 projects implemented in the past 15 years. Then it surveys and outlines the situation in Hungary, and also covers the successes and difficulties communities born now in Budapest have, including factors facilitating and challenging them. In the end, it concludes with the lessons of the Viennese project that can be applied to Hungarian conditions and also lists the potentials of the development of communities here.