To live in a self-determined way, in an equal, diverse house community, without having to move out again at some point because of rent increases – this is one goal of self-managed, solidarity-based housing projects. On a social level, they aim to remove buildings from the real estate market in the long term, since it turns housing into a commodity. The habiTAT network connects such house project initiatives along the lines of and in cooperation with the German Mietshäuser Syndikat, which already includes 160 projects. This ensures that property is once again used as living space, and not to create wealth. The passive house of the Bikes & Rails group in Vienna’s Sonnwendviertel is the fourth habiTAT project in Austria. The bike-friendly building group acts in solidarity – for example, there is a low-cost shared apartment for refugees, a neighbourhood café and a bicycle workshop. In this way, commitment is combined with a spatial openness to the city.
Bikes & Rails, Vienna, from 2020
wohnlabor, Verein Bikes & Rails, habiTAT
Project partners: Verein United in Cycling, Architekturbüro Reinberg, wohnbund:consult, Familienwohnbau gemeinnützige Bau- und Siedlungsgesellschaft m.b.H.
