habiTAT: self-organized housing & solidarity-based economy in Austria

Bastian Lehner, Gerda Haunschmid (Willy*Fred)

BASEhabitat Lecture Series #9

Tue, Nov. 12, 2024, 5:30 - 7:30 pm

Rooftop room D, 4th floor
diearchitektur, University of Arts Linz
Hauptplatz 6, 4020 Linz

habiTAT is a solidarity association whose mission is to realize self-organized, financially low-threshold and socially bound apartment building projects in Austria. The association aims to create affordable and healthy living space and quality of life for everyone. As a legally registered association - since January 2014 - HabiTAT works with the concept of the German Tenement Syndicate, which has been adopted and transferred to the Austrian legal system. The two speakers come from the Willy*Fred house project, which was the first HabiTAT project to be realized in Austria in 2015. In the meantime, other houses have been newly built or bought free, demonstrating in practical terms that the model works.

Bastian Lehner is a craftsman and currently a student of raum&designstrategien at the University of Arts Linz. He has lived in the Willy*Fred house project for seven years and is active there in various functions, currently on the board of the in-house cultural association. He is also active in various self-organized structures and projects within Linz.

Gerda Haunschmid has a bachelor's degree in space & design strategies from the University of Arts Linz. She has been a cultural worker for 20 years and works in a variety of projects, with a focus on collective structures. She has lived in the Willy*Fred house project since 2017 and is involved in various organizational areas of the house, for example as an authorized signatory of the house GmbH and on the board of the in-house cultural association Fredda.