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Max Mueller Bhavan | India

Living in Germany

Living together in town and country Illustration: Tobias Schrank © Goethe-Institut
New Year's Meeting in the Tibetan Pavillion © David Klammer

50 years of Auroville
 A city without property, money and government

A ‘human laboratory’ – this was what the township of Auroville, founded 50 years ago, was supposed to be: basic income for all, no hierarchies, all decisions based on consensus. Frederick Schulze-Buxloh has been there from the very start.
Beyond the grey: a different way to live. Photo (detail): © picture alliance / dpa / Jens Wolf

House beautiful
 Ten creative living spaces, made in Germany

A different way to live: unconventional and whimsical ideas from Germany.
Boat Joshlyn of the Fishing community Koli at the sore of Chimbais rocky beach © Natalie Mayroth

Tradition versus progress
 How Mumbai's fishing community Chimbai has retained the charm of a village

Chimbai, a Koli settlement in the heart of the Indian city of Mumbai, is over 400 years old. Even though the settlement has long become a part of the megacity, it has retained the charm of a village. Hindus and Christians live side by side, not far from the villas in Pali Hill or Andheri that belong to Bollywood stars. A walk though the old fishing village.
Using the heat of the sun to heat the house and the water Photo (detail): © Pierre-Yves Brunaud

Ecological Housing
Green Building to Save the Planet

The building sector accounts for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. New energy-efficient and environmentally sound construction and renovation methods are finally catching on in France.
Surviving segments of the Wall vs. property development projects: a view of the banks of the Spree © Marine Leduc & Constance Bénard

Urban planning
 After the Wall: Berlin’s Urban Planning Dilemma

Modern-day development projects vs. trailer parks and teepees: where the Wall once divided Berlin in half, the city's housing culture is now torn between memory and modernity, nostalgia and progress.
Schloss Tonndorf dates back to the 12th century, built on a hill north of the village of the same name in present-day Thuringia. Photo (detail): © Paul-Ruben Mundthal

Living in Germany
 The manor house community

Making a home in a mansion, living with nature – that could sum up the philosophy of the Schloss Tonndorf community in the Thuringian Forest. Around 60 people live and work together on the idyllic historical estate.
Public ownership at Merseburger Strasse 38 © Marine Leduc & Constance Bénard

Atelier and Ausbau buildings
How Leipzig Is Reinventing Housing

To keep Leipzig affordable for its own residents, the city promotes alternative living and working spaces. It has now become a sort of urban laboratory experimenting with new and unusual models of collective, cooperative and solidarity-based housing.
Community housing © Colourbox / Andrii Stepaniuk

Local housing project Brick by Brick
 Investing in the community

Displacement due to rising housing prices has long been a major problem in Canada. The Montreal project Brick by Brick tries to counteract this. We spoke to the Managing Director of the project, Faiz Abhuani.

Rent or buy?

Germany - Nation of tenants © Goethe-Institut e. V., Internet-Redaktion

Explanatory video
 Germany – Nation of tenants

Germans prefer to rent rather than buy a flat. Our video explains why.
The rent control law Photo (detail): © Adobe

Germany’s housing market
 “The rent control law rarely works”

The German rent control law known as the “Mietpreisbremse” or literally the “rent brake” was designed to slow rising housing costs, but has not really solved the problem. In an interview, economic researcher Claus Michelsen talks about some other approaches that might rein in soaring rents.
Street of houses in Berlin (qd.) Photo (detail): © Adobe

Berlin’s housing market
 Airbnb – a Blessing or a Curse?

Is the online Airbnb flat sharing platform making Berlin’s housing shortage worse? Three students analysed the data to help answer this question. And reached some surprising conclusions.

Living differently

A digital nomad with no office in Ko Lanta, Thailand Max Pixel | Creative Commons Zero - CC0

Life as a digital nomad
 When the world is the better office

Working on a train in India, video conferencing on Skype from a beach in Thailand, enjoying an after-work apéritif in a new city every week – digital nomads make the most of the new technologies to see the world, earning their daily bread as they go.
Tiny House – Van Bo Le-Mentzel © Bauhaus Campus Berlin

An interview with Van Bo Le-Mentzel
 The Trojan horses of systemic change

Van Bo Le-Mentzel is an unconventional thinker. The architect became known for his simple and inexpensive self-assembly instructions for Hartz4 wooden furniture. Then he extended the idea of democratic design to dwellings, developing living accommodations on bicycle trailers and tiny houses on wheels.
Street battle in Frankfurt am Main in 1974 Photo (detail): © picture-alliance/dpa/Joachim Litzenberger - PA: 29407300

Squatters
 Civil unrest in Germany

Affordable housing has become scarce in many German cities, where skyrocketing rents are displacing low-income residents to the outskirts. The problem is by no means new though: In the 1970s and 1980s, people in Germany waged fierce battles against investors, building by contested building.
The Artscape Triangle Lofts © Garrison McArthur

Artscape and the Triangle Lofts Project
 Keeping the Art Life Alive

Being an artist in Canada’s largest city is tougher than ever. Artscape, a Toronto-based non-profit urban development organization, is developing affordable condo spaces for artists to work and live in. 

Where to live?

Urban development planners wish to avoid ghettoization and tower blocks when it comes to the integration of refugees; Photo (detail): © Fotolia

Architecture and Integration
 “To stop feeling like beggars”

In our interview, the sociologist Ingrid Breckner talks about how housebuilding and urban development can improve integration and how conflicts in society can be avoided.
 
Snowstorm in Montreal © Colourbox

Homeless in Montreal
 “You will always find a better place to live in than a shelter”

There are as many homeless people in the streets of Montreal as there are stories. A report on the situation of the weakest inhabitants of Canada's eastern metropolis.
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