43: How to create a COHOUSING in Iceland? (guest: Simon Joscha Flender – Kjarnasamfélag Reykjavíkur)

Let’s talk about cohousing!

Housing is a very important part of urbanism and our cities in general.
Today we will focus on the housing culture in Iceland.
I wanted to introduce you to the concept of co-living, especially cohousing.

I talked to my friend Simon Joscha Flender who is a German architect based in Reykjavik in Iceland.
He is working at ARKÍS arkitektar, but we will focus on his cohousing community Kjarnasamfélag Reykjavíkur that he has co-created.

We talked about:

  1. Icelandic housing market and culture:

    Why Icelander can be interested in living together?

    Why people in Iceland are very goal-oriented and individualistic?

    What is the local housing market structure?

    How housing is developed?

  2. Concept of cohousing

    What cohousing is and what cohousing is not?

    How can we create cohousing and why sharing some tools doesn’t create a cohousing community?

    What was Simon’s reference projects?

  3. Kjarnasamfélag Reykjavíkur cohousing community

    What is Simon’s project about?

    What is its’ background?

    What is the current stage of the project and how people are being involved?

    What are Simon’s hopes for this project and the community to be in the future?

Simon reccommends the book:

Living Complex: From Zombie City to the New Communal, Niklas Maak

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Complex-Zombie-City-Communal/dp/3777424102

Make sure to see the project brochure that we talked about!

https://issuu.com/simonjflender/docs/project_brochure_web_pages

You can see Simon’s amazing master thesis about cohousing here:


You can follow Simon and Kjarnasamfélag Reykjavíkur cohousing community:

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