Living the dream: The com­munity-project Meer­Leben

There are num­erous inno­vative and inspiring con­cepts for new ways of living – from inter-gene­ra­tional living and com­munity life in the country, to pro­jects with a sus­tainable or inter-cul­tural ethos. For incre­asing numbers of joint ven­tures and coope­ra­tives, col­la­bo­rative, co-deter­mined and sus­tainable planning and building approaches are becoming more and more important. Their members are united by their ambition to create affordable and yet high-quality living spaces, which allow people to live tog­ether as a com­munity while taking everyone’s indi­vidual needs into account. The pre­re­quisite is a wil­lingness to make coll­ective decisions and the ensuing com­pro­mises. But it is pre­cisely through these intensive dis­cus­sions that take place during the planning process, that the resi­dents begin to identify deeply with the location and their indi­vidual home. What’s more, the cohesion of the par­ti­ci­pants in this project lives on beyond the planning phase – com­munity faci­lities on the shared pro­perty offer spaces for informal get-tog­e­thers. Con­nec­tions and fri­end­ships are fos­tered without encroa­ching on each individual’s per­sonal space. The same applies in the case of Meer­Leben: you can cook with your neigh­bours and gaze up at the stars in the night sky tog­ether or withdraw to the comfort of your own home with a cup of tea and a good book. You can; there are no musts.

Patric F. C. Meier hopes to forge a link between archi­tecture and a social concept in his holiday vil­lages, thus pro­moting an idea he strongly believes in. It’s an idea that many are likely to share – but so far there is nothing like it, at least in Germany. Alt­hough Patric lives in Munich, he chose the Baltic Sea for the project because of his per­sonal affinity to nor­thern Germany and to the coast, but also because of the building-design oppor­tu­nities available here. An attempt at making his concept work in the Alpine foot­hills has not yet been suc­cessful. And, in spite of initial scep­ticism, there have also been many positive reac­tions to the project from local resi­dents on the Baltic Sea coast. Some even joined in and helped out when the team faced shortages of spe­cialist trade­speople. In other words, the social net­works have effec­tively been doubled.

The project’s members all have dif­ferent moti­va­tions for being part of this joint venture. In addition to their enthu­siasm for the idea itself, the dream of owning their own holiday home clearly also plays a major role: an indi­vidual home, but con­ceived and planned beforehand, as part of a greater whole. Archi­tec­tural gui­de­lines define the basic structure, so that ever­y­thing creates an organic whole, the design requi­re­ments remain the same, and the eco­lo­gical phi­lo­sophy is suc­cessfully imple­mented. Their indi­vidual floor plans, however, can be freely adapted, thus avo­iding the mono­tonous holiday sett­lement look and allowing all 13 houses to bear their owner’s unique signature. With creative names such as GehtDoch (“It Works!”), Viel­leichtNoch (“Or maybe … ?”), War­um­Nicht (“Why not?”) or Nurso (“Just so”), they are all as unique as their inha­bi­tants. You will find small and large homes; simply fur­nished and more com­for­tably equipped homes; some have a sauna, and almost all have a fire­place. Diversity in unity.

Of course, it wasn’t all that easy finding people who were willing to com­promise on ever­y­thing to do with the project. Enthu­si­astic about the idea in prin­ciple, the focus for many young families is initially on owning their own primary home. Nevert­heless, the idea of renting an apartment in the city and owning a holiday house for the restful weeks of the year or as a second home in which you can to spend more time than just your holidays, that idea is enjoying incre­asing popu­larity – not least because of the option of renting the holiday house out to friends and acquain­tances, or even pro­fes­sio­nally. In fact, it’s a model that can benefit both parties. At the Land­Leben (“Coun­tryside Living”) project in Tornow, in the midst of the Ruppin forest and lake dis­trict in Bran­denburg, Germany, future holiday homeowners can award “cer­ti­fi­cates of par­ti­ci­pation” to friends who con­tribute finan­cially to the con­s­truction. These friends can then redeem their cer­ti­fi­cates once the project has been com­pleted and enjoy a certain number of days at the holiday house free of charge.

A similar social concept also forms the basis of Patric’s new project called KoDorf (“Co-Village”). Along with the his­torian and bio­grapher Katrin Frische and jour­nalist Fre­derik Fischer, Patric wants to create a com­munity for people who would rather live and work in the coun­tryside than in the city. The first village in the project Viel­Leben eG (“Lots of Living”), is curr­ently being built about an hour’s drive from Berlin – a newly created sett­lement on the site of a former sawmill, with com­munal buil­dings for co-working spaces as well as cul­tural faci­lities. Regardless of whether it’s built for daily life or for holidays, a suc­cessful coope­rative project always requires appro­priate planning and financing stra­tegies. That’s the only way you can create space for inno­vative initia­tives.

In any case, Patric is cer­tainly not short of ideas. He has already started work on further pro­jects. URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR is involved in some of these in an advisory capacity. Land­Leben, Berg­Leben (“Mountain Living”), Golf­Leben, See­Leben (“Lake Living”) – one thing is certain: the idea of archi­tecture as an essential com­ponent of the community’s social culture is always the driving force.