When quartier Vauban turned into an almost conventional city district inhabited mostly by people who are cosily settled at the top of the propagated social success scale, the alternative movement spread out of Vauban. Active people continued to reappropriate living space – but in a very different way than squatting houses. This was the time when the concept of housing cooperatives financed by syndication was born in Freiburg. By now the idea and its application has spread all over Germany. The cooperative housing syndicate (Mietshäuser Syndikat) takes a loan to buy a property and the inhabitants pay a monthly rent to first pay the loan back and second they continue to pay rent even after – to provide capital for the next sustainable living project, to buy it land or a house or a farm. This way the living space will never be owned by any person and will continue to serve as an independent, free and sustainable living zone.
Innumerable numbers of living projects opened their doors in Freiburg. One of them is Grether Ost – a housing estate that used to be squatted. Now it is more than a living space. A huge garden cooperative which produces organic food for 200 participants has its base there. Bars and herbalists, NGOs and citizen initiatives are located there as well now. This is political and environmental sustainability all in one.
Sustainable Alternatives 