Re-thinking sustainable housing from a community perspective

The current urban challenges of expanding urban housing, the crisis of material resources, climate change, and the ever-increasing detachment from nature, demanded a new type of architectural, urban, and strategic development schemes. Urban eco-villages in the Netherlands are working on realistic solutions and effective alternatives for our methods of living. They are inspiring visions with the ability to radically change the idea of home and the being-together. While the focus has been extensively put on urban eco-villages’ eco-environmental benefits, the author developed this research with a purpose to explore how urban eco-villages, beyond their green niche, contribute to a community’s social sustainability. The research discussed firstly the co-production and social sustainability concepts through the literature. In a second stage, the research assessed qualitatively through a case study approach, the co-production process of Groene Mient village in the Hague, and the contribution of such process on the social sustainability of the community itself, positively and negatively. The author used primary data through participant observations, and interviews of experts and the villagers. In addition of secondary data of community published articles, online/offline. The analysis, developed through the Atlas software revealed that an influential and reciprocal relationship is established between co-production and social sustainability of Groene Mient. Co-production is important for the social transformation that affected the villagers’ human performances, from economic, to environmental along with the social connections it built. It is a tool that enhanced the community’s social equity and sustainability. However, no story can be definitely written; It is up to its actors to add new chapters because it is not an end state, rather a process in constant progress. The importance of this community-based actions, in a Dutch context, is contextualized and tied to an enabling governance of resources. Therefore, different contexts may lead to different outcomes and conclusions.