The story
In May 1920, the first housing cooperative in Luxembourg was founded. It was called "Le Progrès" and bought a building plot in Val-St.-Croix in the city of Luxembourg with government support just a few weeks after its creation. To recruit members, it regularly placed advertisements in various newspapers.
A century later, the model of housing cooperatives is experiencing a renaissance in many European cities. And in Luxembourg, too, the conditions for the emergence of housing cooperatives are finally in place: with the "Aides à la pierre", non-profit cooperatives have access to a generous subsidy. Thanks to AGORA, they can apply for two plots of land in the new "Belval Sud" district. With financial support from the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning and in collaboration with curator Céline Zimmer, LUCA is presenting the exhibition "Our New Housing - An Invitation to Cooperate", which will provide information about housing cooperatives. In workshops accompanying the exhibition, participants will learn more about the founding and planning of cooperatives. This is a historic moment for cooperatives in Luxembourg, because (almost) everything they need is available - building land, financial support, advice. But since cooperatives don't set up on their own, one last thing is still missing: you, the "Future Members".
This project was launched to enable different people who want to get involved in a cooperative to come together without knowing each other beforehand. Unlike “Le Progrès” more than a century ago, it does not rely on newspaper advertisements, but on a contemporary method: a digital platform where “Future Members” can network to build the first cooperative housing projects in Luxembourg.
© Publicité 2 Page 4. in: arme Teufel, 17. Jg., nº 719 (05.06.1920), p. 4 [Digitized by the National Library of Luxembourg, https://persist.lu/ark:70795/b6wr9p/pages/4/articles/DTL137]
The exhibition
Our New Housing - An Invitation to Cooperate
March 14-June 7, 2025
@LUCA (Luxembourg Center for Architecture)
With the support of the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Development and in collaboration with curator Céline Zimmer, LUCA is presenting the exhibition "Our New Housing - An Invitation to Cooperate". It provides information about the model of housing cooperatives, which is hardly widespread and tested in Luxembourg and encourages visitors to actively participate in the creation of cooperatives. Registration is required for guided tours. Private guided tours can be requested for groups of at least 5 people.
The "For Future Members Only" workshops are also part of this exhibition. Here, participants will learn more about the opportunities, but also the challenges that cooperatives bring with them. The groups will work together to come up with a concept for their cooperative and then plan their housing project together.
The realization
Funding: Œuvre Nationale, Fonds stART-up
Programming:HMT Engineering SARL
Visual identity and design:Exutoire
Idea, concept, texts: Céline Zimmer
This platform was financed by the stART-up fund of the Œuvre Nationale. As a public institution, the Œuvre supports projects that serve the common good in Luxembourg. The stART-up fund is aimed at young artists, creatives and cultural professionals under the age of 36 who have a connection to Luxembourg. With funding of up to 25,000 euros per project, it enables them to realize a project that is of particular importance for their professional development. Céline Zimmer was granted 24,890 euros for the "For Future Members Only" platform. This is how these funds were used:
More information on the stART-up fundThe author
Céline Zimmer is an architect and researcher. She grew up in Bettembourg where she attended the primary school "Schoul am Duerf" and then the secondary school "Lycée Aline Mayrisch" in Luxembourg City. She studied architecture in Trier and Hamburg. After her studies in Germany, she returned to Luxembourg and started her doctoral studies at the University of Luxembourg. In her thesis, she investigated how a third housing sector could influence the housing supply in Luxembourg and which alternatives are particularly suitable as prototypes for this additional sector in Luxembourg. The housing models of the third housing sector are privately initiated and co-managed by the residents, but differ from the existing private sector in that they are intended to benefit the general public and are removed from speculation, i.e. they are non-profit and decommodified. This means that there is no profit motive and the apartments are not part of the free market. The focus is on the original function of the apartment as a home. It is not only about providing good and affordable housing for oneself, but also about increasing this housing so that it can be made available to future home seekers. In the course of this research, the housing cooperative emerged as a housing model that is particularly suited to the legal, housing policy and cultural context of Luxembourg. This model has a long tradition in some countries (such as Switzerland) and is currently the subject of intense debate in many European cities. After completing her doctorate, Céline Zimmer worked to raise awareness of cooperatives and their impact on the prevailing housing shortage, and on communicating the model in Luxemburg.
In February 2024, she founded the architecture firm Less Yellow together with Florian Hertweck.
Publications (selection):
2023, University of Luxembourg
2025, Housing, Micropolitics, and Pedagogies: Designing and Practicing Collectivity
2024, d'Lëtzebuerger Land
2024, Architecture + Real Estate
2022, Forum for politics, society and culture in Luxembourg
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