Cooperative Urbanism: Cooperative Living at the Urban Scale

Abstract

This thesis proposes a framework for approaching housing solutions through the lens of ‘cooperative urbanism,’ which expands the cooperative housing model to the urban scale, redirecting the focus from housing provision to the development of sustainable communities. The contemporary debate about urban housing stock and affordability continues to plague North American cities, remaining stalled in its search for a meaningful and lasting solution. Decision-makers at the municipal level persist in recycling familiar strategies, focusing on developer-led mid-rise and high-rise projects, with only sporadic attempts at social or cooperative housing models. Cooperative Urbanism offers an alternative by emphasizing shared spaces through the process of re-imagining traditional land-use patterns in urban areas. This thesis introduces the concept of “cooperative urbanism” in an architectural context to propose an alternate method of urban housing design on a redevelopment site in Halifax, Nova Scotia.