Wohnraum, Eigennutz, Gemeinsinn

Who has the right to affordable housing? What architectural expression does a small civic cooperative choose? How do money, power, and resources change hands? This book focuses on cooperative living and presents a case study of the housing cooperative Wiedikon (BGW) in Zurich. It was founded after World War I by the liberal contractor Heinrich Hatt-Haller, who, along with the involved craftsmen, owned the majority of the cooperative's capital. After World War II, the BGW transformed into a member cooperative but remained oriented towards civic conservatism. From 2009 onwards, it evolved in the context of the gentrification of Wiedikon following the closure of the West Tangent, largely aligning itself with the leftist cooperative mainstream. The book critically situates the history of the cooperative within the urban development of Zurich and questions the social and political significance of housing cooperatives in the context of current gentrification trends.