Country/Region: Belgium

Care and Living in Community (CALICO)

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Care and Living in Community (CALICO)

Policies and regulations Land Public-private initiatives Participatory processes
Promotion and production Self-management Self-promotion Cooperatives
Ownership and tenure Shared ownership

Main objectives of the project

The core activity of CALICO is the construction of 34 housing units and the establishment of a Community Land Trust (CLT) in Brussels, which provides an innovative model of community-managed housing. Moreover, CALICO is also an experiment in creating a ‘Community Care Model’, in which people interact at different liminal stages of life – birth, old age and the end of life. This addresses the ‘hyper-specialisation’ and ‘hyper-sectoralisation’ of care in Belgium and is directed towards organising care provided within neighbourhoods by its members, instead of institutions.

Date

  • 2021: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: Community Land Trust Bruxelles
  • Promotor: CALICO

Location

Country/Region: Belgium, Brussels

Description

The Brussels-Capital Region (BCR) is currently facing a set of challenges regarding housing. Its dwellings have a low quality standard and there is a lack of social housing availability. These issues need to be added to an increase in rent due to speculative practices. Undeniably, all these challenges have a greater impact on vulnerable groups such as aging population or women. For them, the housing crisis is an addition to how an exclusion in the decision-making process, an institutionalized care system and at-risk situations due to poverty or isolation. For these reasons, there was a need to install a non-speculative model of housing that could provide the needed care for vulnerable groups from the community of neighbors.

Thus, 34 housing units were built following a Community Land Trust (CLT) scheme. This model ensures the financial accessibility of housing by separating ownership of land from ownership of buildings and providing measures to limit the speculative resale of assets. Historically, CLTs have been used in the United States and the United Kingdom, but they are an innovative practice in continental Europe, including Belgium. Importantly, CALICO focuses not only on the organizational and legal foundations of the CLT, but also on the community dimension of its inhabitants’ lives. This is obtained by including inhabitants in estate management and providing tools for deliberation and physical spaces for interaction (common and service areas).

How does a CLT work? Basically, the CLT in Brussels is a non-profit organisation, that share three basic principles: separation of ownership of land and buildings, permanent affordability of housing for low-income households via a formula that limits the increase in value of the property, and joint governance between owner, inhabitants, and local government. The land is considered to be collective property, while households individually acquire buildings for a lower price than in a standard real estate transaction. The Brussels CLT is made up of two organisations: the Brussels CLT Public Utility Foundation, which owns the land on which the housing units will be built, and the ASBL Brussels CLT, which is in charge of the daily management of the foundation’s assets. The ASBL Board of Directors has tripartite representation: building residents, people from the surrounding community (inhabitants and associations) and appointed representatives from the Brussels-Capital Region each having one-third of the seats. Apart from CLTB, CALICO includes two cooperative schemes (Pass-ages and Angela.D) in the project that manage some of the housing units, one focusing on women and the other on elderly people. The three organisation are now part of the CALICO association, that is in charge of the communal spaces and the development of the community.

Yet, CALICO is also an experiment in creating a ‘Community Care Model’, in which people interact at different liminal stages of life – birth, old age and the end of life. It will target certain social groups in particular, single mothers, the elderly and low-income families. The development of this new housing is founded on a participatory and inclusive approach. The CALICO project will offer services from birth to the end of life, as well as mutual support by the residents. By bringing different population groups and different functions together in the same project, and by strengthening social cohesion, both within the project and within the neighbourhood, CALICO opens a new model of housing policy.

Links

Authors:

CSCAE Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España

Soap factory Heymans

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Soap factory Heymans

Policies and regulations
Urban Design
Promotion and production
Ownership and tenure

Main objectives of the project

The Savonnerie Heymans complex reflects a truly sustainable approach by recreating a real new neighbourhood of 42 low-energy and passive social accommodations including apartments, lofts, duplexes and Maisonettes.

Date

  • 2010: Rehabilitación

Stakeholders

  • Architect: Marie Moignot
  • Architect: Xavier de Wil
  • Architect: Gilles Debrun

Location

City: Bruxelles
Country/Region: Belgium, Brussels

Description

Winning scheme of a European competition organised by the developer, the Savonnerie Heymans complex reflects a truly sustainable approach by recreating a real new neighbourhood of 42 low-energy and passive social accommodations including apartments, lofts, duplexes and Maisonettes. Although a 100% public housing scheme, thanks to the diversity of its program the Savonnerie Heymans provides a variety of spaces echoing the diversity of the people living in the very heart of Brussels. Glass-enclosed bioclimatic loggias characterise the entire complex, providing an effective acoustical and thermal barrier but also providing a sense of privacy.

On the 6,500m² site of a former soap factory less than half a mile from the Grand’Place, the social housing project creates a real “village” of 42 sustainable accommodations of different types including studios, 1 to 6-bedroom apartments, lofts, duplexes and Maisonettes.

Although a 100% public housing scheme, thanks to the diversity of its program the Savonnerie Heymans provides a variety of spaces echoing the diversity of the people living in the very heart of Brussels. Glass-enclosed bioclimatic loggias characterise the entire complex, providing an effective acoustical and thermal barrier but also providing a sense of privacy.

Considering Brussels’ rapid growth in population, the scheme features high density accommodations equipped with amenities such as a room for social meetings and events, a crèche and extensive public space: the “Mini-forest” garden, the 3D landscaped park and playground and the main promenade.

All the existing valuable - but not listed - historic buildings and elements such as the chimney, the main 19th century house on the street and the postal relay were retained and integrated into the complex (the 40m high chimney, for example, was used as part of the underground garage ventilation system).

The glass-enclosed bioclimatic loggias provide each housing unit with a state-of-the-art acoustical and thermal barrier requiring no expensive/complicated services to run and lowering considerably energy consumption. The Loft building has been treated one step further as thanks to super-tight insulation, the building is now considerate “Passive” and requires less than 15 Kw/m2 per year to heat.
Located on the site of a former soap factory, the decontaminated land now welcomes a high-density social housing complex that provides a series of private outdoor spaces allowing its occupants to interact easily with each other and creating a convivial, village-like atmosphere.

The scheme was intentionally developed around the concepts of sustainable development (socially, economically and environmentally) and relies on low-serviced buildings. The glass-enclosed bioclimatic loggias provide each housing unit with a buffer acting as a state-of-the-art insulation tool lowering considerably energy consumption and protecting from the city centre noises. They also allow sharing the variety of arrangements of the semi outdoor space of each individual unit.
Beside the loggias, the scheme also features a collective heating system for the entire site (cogeneration), sanitary hot water heated by 60m² of solar panels, rainwater harvesting and natural materials for insulation (hemp fibres, expanded cork etc.). Whenever possible, existing buildings and structures have been retained and reused.

Authors:

Fundació Mies van der Rohe Barcelona

Community Land Trust Brussels (CLTB)

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Community Land Trust Brussels (CLTB)

Policies and regulations
Financing
Promotion and production
Ownership and tenure

Main objectives of the project

Community Land Trust Brussels (CLTB) (https://cltb.be/) develops affordable rental and co-ownership housing projects in Brussels for low-income households.

Date

  • 2020:

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: Community Land Trust Brussels (CLTB)

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Schaerbeek - Schaarbeek
Country/Region: Belgium, Brussels

Description

By April 2020, CLTB had delivered 49 dwellings and a further 59 were under construction. Its co-ownership housing is an example of the subsidy retention model of shared housing equity and therefore provides “permanently affordable” housing.[1]

Under this model, housing is built or refurbished on land which is collectively owned by the community land trust. Home buyers apply to CLTB to buy a home and, if their application is successful, they do so for a price which reflects their income rather than the market value. They also sign a ground lease contract which compels them to lease the land from the CLT for 50 years and when this finishes, they can renew it.

Alternatively, they can sell their dwelling to another household that meets the CLTB conditions of access; though dwellings can also be sold before the ground lease expires, if needed. However, in case of sale, the resident receives 25 per cent of the increase in value above what they paid for the dwelling and CLTB receives 6 per cent or EUR 3,000, whichever is the highest. The next household purchases the home at this sale price, which effectively neutralizes the remaining 69 per cent of the increase in value of the dwelling.

Collaborative management of buildings and the organization are also core principles of CLTB. Before buyers move into their new home they participate in a ‘project group’ with other buyers in same complex which collectively agrees the final design and fit-out of the dwellings and also how the housing estates or building will be managed. After buyers move into their new homes it is envisaged that they will take over responsibility the management of the estate or building. Current and future CLT members can attend the Trust’s annual general meeting and participate in decisions regarding the management of CLTB, as well as sit on the board of directors of CLTB.

Links

Authors: