Zoe Tzika
ESR10

Host university
B7 - School of Architecture, Universitat Politècnica de ValènciaSupervising team
Carla Sentieri (Supervisor) Adrienne Csizmady (Co-Supervisor) Anna Martínez (Co-Supervisor)Secondments
School of Architecture La Salle, Ramon Llull University, Spain Institute for Sociology, Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre of Excellence, Hungary Budapesti Módszertani Szociális Központ, Hungary Városkutatás Kft, HungaryResearch project
ESR10 - Sustainable neighbourhoods and co-creationZoe Tzika is a PhD candidate at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and an early-stage researcher in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Research Network project “RE-DWELL: Providing Affordable and Sustainable Housing”. Her doctoral thesis centres on community participation and community-led housing, investigating the cooperative housing movement in Barcelona. Zoe graduated in 2017 from the Architecture School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh). In her research thesis, she focused on the impact of the financial crisis and the neoliberal policies on the urban space of the city. Her diploma project used the conceptual frameworks of the urban commons and of the circular economy, to suggest alternatives for the revitalisation of a deprived neighbourhood, with the engagement of the local population. She also studied at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Lyon and has a Master's degree from the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IaaC). In the past, she practised architecture in Denmark, France and Greece. She was part of the Atelier d' Architecture Autogérée in Paris working on self-managed architecture and participatory urban design, and of Urban Agency in Copenhagen, working on urban and residential projects. Finally, she has worked as a freelance architect on residential projects and social housing, mainly on the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of existing buildings, as well as a research assistant for the FabCity initiative. In her ongoing research, she employs a mixed-methods approach to delve into the socio-spatial ramifications of community-led housing, grounded in the conceptual framework of the capabilities approach. Her recent academic pursuits and published works revolve around themes encompassing social sustainability, co-creation, transdisciplinary research and the housing landscape in Southern Europe.
August, 31, 2023
February, 23, 2022
September, 17, 2021
Collaborative housing models to achieve more affordable and sustainable housing: Analysing the case of Barcelona's grant-of-use cooperative housing
Collaborative housing models have been emerging as viable alternatives to conventional state or market-driven housing provision, especially in an era characterized by the increasing financialization and commodification of housing. In this context, where housing is often prioritized for profit maximization and lacks the involvement of future residents, such models offer an alternative path, by enabling communities to actively shape the built environment and experiment with diverse ways of living.
This research delves into the dynamics of the grant-of-use cooperative housing model in Barcelona and Catalonia, which emerged in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, rooted in principles of democratic governance, communal living, and public-communitarian collaboration. Beyond the fundamental goal of securing affordable and stable housing, these cooperative groups strive to combat social isolation and foster sustainable lifestyles.
The aim of this study is to shed light on the evolving landscape of community-led housing. This is achieved, firstly, by comprehending the driving forces behind Barcelona's emerging housing movement and the relationship between architectural outcomes and social dynamics. Secondly, through the application of the capabilities approach to analyze the critical factors that enable or hinder valued outcomes, the study investigates the potential of collaborative housing in shaping equitable housing results and cultivating inclusive urban environments. Ultimately, the findings of this study can significantly inform housing policies and initiatives that prioritize community-driven solutions.
The study employs a comprehensive mixed-method design, drawing upon quantitative data sourced from Catalonia's cooperative housing observatory and qualitative data collected through extensive fieldwork. This multifaceted approach encompasses interviews, site visits, focus groups, document analysis, and participatory action research, enriched by informal conversations, presentations, and participant observation. By synthesizing diverse data sources, the research aims to provide a nuanced understanding of collaborative housing's transformative potential in contemporary urban contexts.
Research questions:
How can community-led housing initiatives achieve more equitable housing outcomes and foster inclusive urban developments?
What are the critical factors and contexts that facilitate or inhibit the development of affordable and sustainable community-led housing?
How can community participation be supported to achieve meaningful housing results for the residents?
Reference documents
An analysis of community participation for the provision of affordable and sustainable housing: The case of Barcelona
Housing is becoming unaffordable for an increasing part of the population, due to the rising real-estate values, financialization, and commodification of the housing market, leading to exclusion and dislocations. Particularly, in the countries of the European south, the model of private ownership traditionally prevailed, provided through the open market, and social housing provision appeared limited. At the same time, the existing built stock is often inadequate as it doesn’t cover the current dwellers' needs, values, or desires. The research aims to investigate processes of community participation in housing provision, as an emerging practice, that seeks solutions to the housing crisis and more sustainable practices. The focus will be on the case of Barcelona, where during the last fifteen years, local groups are exploring alternative paths of housing co-creation as a response to the housing crisis. We will be focusing on cooperative housing that uses the legal form of ‘grant of use’, and that is following a transdisciplinary co-creation process. The first step of the research will be to map the cases of housing co-creation that appear in Barcelona, using GIS, to understand and analyse their characteristics. The characteristics will follow three categories; spatial/technical, demographic/social, and tenure/legal. Through this mapping we will be able to categorise and understand, what are these projects, who participate and in what tenure forms. In the next step, three cases will be further researched through participatory action research, using interviews, focus groups and participatory observation. Through this investigation, we will be able to analyse the processes that are being followed, the objectives and the outcomes. The cases will be in different stages of their development: initiation, in-process, or already occupied, allowing us to understand critical factors throughout the development of these projects. The emerging practices of community participation in the provision of housing are considered ways to address on the one hand the challenges of long-term affordability of housing, and on the other hand, to pursue the environmental and social sustainability of the communities. Social and environmental sustainability is understood as the entanglement of the two concepts, that need to be defined by each community, encompassing their habits, practices, and modes of living and aiming in pursuing their collective wellbeing. The research aims to provide a better understanding of the emerging model of housing, analyse its critical limits and success factors, and suggest ways of pursuing such a direction. This analysis has the potential of diffusing this knowledge to other countries of the European south, as a way to pursue models of affordable and sustainable housing through community participation.
Reference documents
Retrofit of existing buildings and cohousing: Co-creation of sustainable living environments
The aim of the research is to investigate processes and practices of collective co-creation of housing and neighborhoods in order to give solutions to the current housing crisis in the context of the european south. The research takes its departure from the need for a critical exploration of what defines a sustainable urban environment, that promotes socially inclusive, environmentally aware and affordable modes of living, that is co-produced by the local population, according to their needs. The research seeks to connect the act of inhabiting with the active involvement in shaping the built environment and creating sustainable communities with respect to their identity and socio-cultural characteristics.
Housing is becoming unaffordable for a big part of society, because of the rising real-estate values, financialisation and deregulation of the housing market and a permanent housing crisis. At the same time, the right to affordable housing should not be separated from the right to decent housing and to access resources, infrastructures and services. Often, urban areas are being (re)developed following centralised decision-making, which leads to dislocation of the local populations, gentrification or exclusion. In addition, the climate crisis strengthens the importance of re-considering the dominant paradigm of urban development, suggesting more ecological approaches and energy efficiency. Bottom-up practices of collective retrofit and cohousing are creating alternatives that challenge the commodification and precarization of housing and the atomization and isolation of people, offering opportunities for collaboration, appropriation, self-management and empowerment of the residents.
The research will investigate collaborative practices of housing with the adaptive reuse and retrofit of existing built environments, understanding the socio-political context in which they emerge to create perspectives that go beyond a normative approach. I will use case study research with a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative data, to investigate the process and the characteristics of retrofit cohousing. The post-occupancy evaluation will be followed by participatory action research. Also, the field surveys will be combined with interviews and ethnographic methodologies to develop a comprehensive analysis of the existing conditions. The aim is to arrive at analysis and methodologies for sustainable retrofit of existing buildings considering the social implications and exploring the potential of collaborative housing.

Exploring the right to housing in Spain: some reflections
Posted on 22-09-2023
Reflections, Conferences
Read more ->
Urban regeneration and new housing research — European network of housing research conference (ENHR) 2023
Posted on 01-09-2023
Conferences, Reflections
Read more ->
Cooperative housing in Barcelona
Posted on 01-02-2023
Secondments
Read more ->
The discussion for the right to housing. ENHR, Barcelona 2022
Posted on 12-09-2022
Conferences, Reflections
Read more ->
La Borda
Created on 26-04-2023
Community Empowerment
Housing Retrofit
Area: Community participation
Created on 03-06-2022
Read more ->Area: Design, planning and building
Created on 16-02-2022
Read more ->Tzika, Z., Sentieri, C., & Martinez, A. (2023). Towards collective forms of dwelling: Analysis of the characteristics of the emerging grant-of-use housing cooperatives in Catalonia. Revista de Arquitectura.
Posted on 04-10-2023
Article
Read more ->