The largest neighborhood in participatory housing in France will be born in Strasbourg by 2030, the environmental mayor Jeanne Barseghian announced on Tuesday during a press conference.
In the heart of a new district located in the east of the city, near the Parc de la Citadelle, 102 of the 909 housing units will be designed in participatory housing, a practice which allows the future inhabitants of a building to come together to design together. their accommodations.
They will be based on the sharing of an ecological and community way of life, with the creation of shared spaces. These homes help build the city of tomorrow and support the ambition to offer citizens ecological and affordable housing, said Ms. Barseghian.
Still lagging behind other European countries
They are inventing a new way of living in the city, avoiding the presence of dormitory areas, she added. Two initial consultations will be held this year so that citizens can apply and present their projects.
A pioneer in the development of such housing in France, the Alsatian city also presides over the national network of communities for participatory housing. Since 2009, 20 participatory projects have taken place and 15 others are underway in Strasbourg, declared Alain Jund, municipal councilor in charge of the development of these accommodations.
For a very long time, participatory housing was a utopia, today this utopia is being realized with this exemplary district at the national level, he concluded. In 2021, there were nearly 900 participatory housing projects in the country, according to the organization Habitats participatifs France.
If participatory housing is developing in France, France remains behind its European neighbors such as Switzerland, where 5% of the housing stock is built in this mode, or Germany, with the city of Tubingen, where 80% of new homes are participatory.