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. The German and international press is forever poring over the so-called "Hypezig" phenomenon, a portmanteau of "hype" and "Leipzig".
Two hundred kilometres away from Berlin, its big sister, Leipzig, a former industrial and cultural hub of East Germany that was deserted by many of its residents after the fall of the Berlin Wall, has been reborn out of its ashes β and at a remarkable pace.
After the reappropriation of vacant apartments that began in the mids, marked a turning point in the history of the city: Leipzig, including its industrial wastelands, became a trend. Property prices are soaring as a result and vacancies are increasingly rare. In order to keep Leipzig affordable for its own residents, in the city issued a directive to promote alternative living environments.
It set up the Leipziger Freiheit network, which brings a great many associations and cooperatives together to work towards this goal. Since then, the city has funded a number of initiatives and invested in counselling residents who want to develop alternative forms of housing. Leipzig is now an urban laboratory experimenting with novel and unusual models of collective, cooperative and solidarity-based housing. However, the threat of gentrification is omnipresent.
For 15 years now this association has been putting artists β and others in precarious housing situations β in touch with owners. The association has come up with a new system in which tenants can live on the premises for a fixed period of time without paying rent. In return, they renovate the buildings to keep them from falling into disrepair. Its latest housing model, Atelierhaus, is reserved for artists.
