Modificare, co-abitare. Osservazioni sul reuse cohousing in Europa, 2014-2024.

The redevelopment of abandoned buildings into shared collective housing – reuse cohousing – is rapidly spreading from Northern European countries to our latitudes. This situation calls for reflection on some issues closely linked to the discipline of design and previously overlooked. The initial assumption proposed in this paper is to interpret the terms “reuse” as the theme of “modification” and “cohousing” within the broader framework of “cohabitation”. Converting existing structures into collaborative housing therefo- re means modifying a system of relationships that are both physical and spatial, human and social. Through a comparative reading of a selection of projects built over the last ten years, the essay explores the existence of a common “language of modification,” that is, the presence of a shared territory among the reuse cohousing projects in relation to themes that are fundamental to the discipline of design, such as the idea of type and typology, morphology, belonging and identity, despite the evident heterogeneity of the interventions.