Kraftwerk1

Kraftwerk1 was born out of multiple housing crises which hit Zurich in the 1980’s and 90’s, when a lack of housing pushed prices up, and pushed people out. The collective was formed in 1993 by the three authors of a manifesto of the same name. Architect Andreas Hofer, artist Martin Blum, and author P.M. based the Kraftwerk1 model on a more pragmatic vision of P.M.’s social utopian “bolo’bolo” (“tribe”) model.

Kraftwerk1’s primary innovation lies in project organization. They seek land in undesirable parts of a city and broker deals with owners desperate to offload their unused land. The communities finance the capital improvement by a graduated contribution scheme based on income. This allows the collective to admit those who financially might not otherwise be able to afford the rent. Even in so doing, Kraftwerk1 typically achieves rents at 20% below market.

Although Kraftwerk1 has chosen a different architect for each of its projects, a common theme in its design philosophy is an open and flexible architectural design strategy. Their buildings also provide a suite of communal amenities, often including a shop, a kindergarten, and a restaurant. Their latest project, Project Koch, involves building 325 affordable homes with commercial use on the ground floor, and is expected to be completed by 2026.

Kraftwerk1 is an illustration of how concept organization can make a project more than the sum of its parts. A building’s design must exist in partnership with the design of the community that lives there. Designers can do both when they recognize the interplay between building, occupant and community.