The recent growth of cooperative housing in Spain questions existing design standards and regulations as well as cultural norms of ownership, management and current housing typologies. This paper analyzes the design opportunities and challenges emerging from this. It studies the transformative capacity of housing cooperatives and how the realization of new social, spatial and economic demands is restricted by regulatory and administrative frameworks that limit collective ownership and use. Based on a case study analysis of recent projects in Barcelona, the paper discusses how regulations condition housing design, but also why changing ideas of ownership, household and dwelling structures require a review of how regulations are formulated and implemented. It examines this in the context of designing with housing cooperatives and their ethos defined by engagement in and responsibility for all decision-making processes and self-management. In cooperative housing, architecture is a process, not a product, one that extends beyond the completion of a building. This gives credibility to the claim of cooperative housing not just as a grassroots response to housing failures, but also as a political project of democratization and social transformation.

The lack of affordable housing remains a major problem in Spain. Following the decline in public and affordable housing production caused by the economic, political, and social crisis of 2008, efforts to produce public housing were reactivated in the mid-2010s, gaining increasing importance. In Barcelona, housing policies have played a central role in recent political discourse, particularly with the tenure of housing rights activist Ada Colau (2015–2023). With traditional approaches failing to address the housing emergency, the local government introduced five new procurement strategies to increase the affordable housing stock. These involve new forms of council housing, delegated developments, limited-profit investments, zero-equity housing cooperatives, and urban refurbishment. This article uses a mixed methods approach to analyse these strategies. The analysis spans all design phases, from inception to construction, and includes post-occupancy evaluations. Methods include typological analysis, expert interviews, and spatial performance analysis using ethnographic methods and inhabitant interviews. The results evidence the importance of diversifying procurement models, tailoring approaches to different user profiles, and enhancing emerging opportunities by including new stakeholders in the development process.

Este artículo explora las oportunidades que surgen de la investigación doctoral “by practice” en el Royal College of Art (RCA), donde se pone a prueba la teoría mediante proyectos aplicados al contexto real. La investigación se centra en la conceptualización y aplicación de arquitecturas colaborativas y sus metodologías proyectuales en dos proyectos específicos: la rehabilitación de una nave industrial en desuso y el diseño de un edificio de viviendas cooperativas. Ambos proyectos se desarrollaron en estrecha colaboración con los usuarios finales, generando un impacto bidireccional. Por un lado, la investigación se beneficia de datos situados que permiten validar las hipótesis a través de los resultados formales y procesuales de los proyectos. Por otro lado, los proyectos prácticos, comúnmente abordados desde una perspectiva profesional, integran una dimensión teórica que contribuye a alcanzar mejores resultados. Este estudio sostiene la importancia de interconectar teoría y práctica en un proceso de investigación transversal que enriquece tanto la comprensión académica como los resultados aplicados.

Crítica arquitectónica sobre la labor desarrollada por la Fundación RIA en la Ría de Arousa bajo la dirección del arquitecto inglés David Chipperfield.

The City in Space was an experimental housing research project developed by Taller d’Arquitectura between 1968 and 1975. Led by Ricardo Bofill, this multidisciplinary collective explored new ways of living through an approach that combined utopia and realism to address Spain’s affordable housing crisis. As an alternative to the social housing promoted by the military regime from the late 1960s, Taller proposed a design system based on a domestic cellular unit that redefined fundamental aspects of collective housing: minimum housing, spatial flexibility, modularity, industrialization, and strategies to counteract the stigmatization of low-cost housing. Fifty years later, many of these issues remain relevant. Spain’s housing crisis continues unresolved, driving renewed interest in large-scale public housing construction. At the same time, design strategies based on non-hierarchical and interconnected housing cells have re-emerged, while the concept of housing as a framework for communal life has gained traction with the rise of housing cooperatives. This article revisits Taller d’Arquitectura’s research from a contemporary perspective, analyzing its impact and relevance in the current context. Through a critical reading of its design principles and spatial applications, fundamental insights are drawn for rethinking affordable housing within the framework of urban and social transformation.