At Nowe Żerniki, a model residential area called WuWa 2, three plots were appointed for residential cooperatives. It is a proposal for the citizens to organize themselves and build houses they really enjoy.
Choose your neighbor and live in a "tailored" apartment
- Cooperative is a group working together to purchase real estate and building a building there for few families to meet their own residential needs - Karolina Woźniak, the project manager responsible for cooperation on the City Hall's behalf provided the definition. - Cooperators together prepare the concept of real estate development, especially divide the residential premises (and service premises if such are to be built) and distinct common parts, then together decide on finances and the course of investment process - she added.
- It is suppose to work as follows, for example, four families reach an understanding, buy a plot of land and build a house for four families, the house of their dreams - Rafał Dutkiewicz, the president of Wroclaw explained. The president of Wroclaw remind that at present in Poland first the building is built, then people move in and found a community. - And I would like to reverse that process so they community would be first, then the building. It took place in Wroclaw in the 90ties of the previous century when building "fillings" was in vogue. At that time small communities were born - people reached an understanding and built small buildings. I would like to come back to this custom at the part of area WUWA 2, we'll see how the residents of Wroclaw will react - Rafał Dutkiewicz added.
In the West co-housing, here cooperatives
Zbigniew Maćków, an architect, the curator of the European Capital of Culture Wroclaw 2016, involved into the creation of the housing development Nowe Żerniki: - First cooperatives will be intimate multi-family buildings with few locals. The crucial fact differentiating them from other typical developmental undertakings is they are founded as a result of the grassroots activities of the residents' groups who to much extent want to realize their dreams about a house of their own. To achieve that they get together thanks to social connections or via social media and start up an informal group which with time becomes a formal one, in the West it is called co-housing, baugruppen - cooperative is a Polish equivalent. The group buys land, commissions the project and organizes a building process. It does everything on its behalf and on behalf of its members.
Cooperative allows you shape the space of the building according to the needs - it is a home tailored to the expectations of its residents. They themselves can set the space to live. Buildings of cooperatives differ from the developer ones because of the design adjusted to the needs of the inhabitants of a shared space . They can found in the laundry room, drying room, storage room , bicycle storage, pram storage place . They can schedule a common space for leisure and entertainment - common room , library, gym , children's sitting room , a room for receiving guests with kitchenette and working space. Cooperative may also develop the roof and arrange on it such attractions as a garden or jacuzzi , a sauna , and put the usual sun loungers. The decide on the development of the plot surrounding the building - they do not have to plant a hedge or conifers, they may appoint flowerbeds for growing vegetables or flowers, or they can arrange a children's playground , barbecue area or set the gazebo . The project can include the construction of garages and storages.
Because the house is building a group of people who know one another, within the cooperatives strong neighborly bonds are created. So there is no problem with the anonymity of the residents - they care about their building and its surroundings. It also happens that the people in cooperatives are friends and help each other: they babysit the children, they do the shopping for the old, fix a faucet, take the garbage out or walk the dog. In such a house life is safer - neighborly bonds cannot be substituted by the best protection or a high fence and gate.
The great advantage of a building in a cooperative is the price of housing - much lower than the prices offered by traditional developers. Costs can be as much as 30 percent lower than the cost of buying a typical home. Cooperative raising a multifamily building buy cheap building materials and, above all, do not charge a premium for built apartment.
The first three Wroclaw cooperatives appeared on the outskirts of New Żerniki. According to the local development plan buildings that will be built there may have up to three floors. Projects "to take" already exist - they include different types of apartments of different size and standard. The members of the cooperatives do not have to stick to these projects, they can be customized to suit their needs and on this basis realize the investment. They can also present their concept (keeping the design assumptions for residential Nowe Żerniki), which may, however, make the process of project implementation longer.
The interested ones can ask for information in Nowe Żerniki office at Solny square 14 (contact on webpage.nowezerniki.pl/). You can also write to [email protected].
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