
Fuggerei of the Future
To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the world’s oldest social housing complex, the Fuggerei in Augsburg, MVRDV partnered with the Fugger Foundations to develop a manual for the creation of new Fuggerei around the world, allowing the concept to adapt to new contexts while ensuring that they adhere to the values and principles of the original. The manual also included three studies for new Fuggerei in specific locations: one in Lithuania, one in Sierra Leone, and a second in Augsburg with a focus on education.
- Status
- Design
- Year
- 2022
- Client
- Fürstlich und Gräflich Fuggerschen Stiftungen
- Programmes
- Residential, Master plan
- Themes
- Housing, Sustainability, Research
The brainchild of merchant Jakob Fugger, since 1521 the Fuggerei has provided a place for people to live with dignity, charging a constant, unchanging rent of just one guilder a year – or 0.88 euros in modern currency. In our current times of housing shortage, climate crisis, social inequality, and isolation, the sustainability-oriented and people-centred concept of the Fuggerei provides a global role model, and offers a response to the great social and ecological questions of our time.
The study identified seven distinct issues that the Fuggerei is capable of addressing. A fuggerei should address a specific social need (broadly describing any location-specific social challenge, ranging from poverty to education to gender discrimination); it should provide a safe haven for the people it serves; it should be sustainable. It should encourage humanistic values (500 years ago, Catholicism defined the original Fuggerei, but today this can refer to any common value system that residents share); should enable self-determination and dignity for residents; should be a social home (supporting community and a rewarding personal life); and it should provide for residents’ spiritual needs. These central tenets are enshrined in the newly-written Fuggerei Code, along with additional details such as requiring only a “minimal spiritual monetary and spiritual consideration from residents” and the expectation for the Fuggerei to maintain its mission in perpetuity.
In order to achieve these goals, the study defines an abstract set of components that make a Fuggerei successful. These eight simple “building blocks” provide the basis for a system for new Fuggerei that can be adapted to differing contexts worldwide. First is the founder, or “stifter”, who defines the local need addressed by the Fuggerei. The houses should have doors to the street and include a private green space such as a garden, roof terrace, or balcony; streets should be car-free, human-scale, and climate-responsive. There should always be a natural space providing the opportunity for social gatherings; and there should be a meeting point that forms the heart of the community. “Fuggerei elements”, such as contemplative spaces or repair workshops, provide permanent community functions based on the Fuggerei’s central need; “special elements” provide more flexible spaces that can adapt to needs that change over time; and finally, the gateway, that defines the Fuggerei’s relationship to its surroundings – simultaneously inviting people inside yet providing a sense of security for residents.
The study for Sierra Leone focusses on Rothumba, a remote fishing village. Identifying multiple needs that a Fuggerei could address, including healthcare and hygiene issues, the threat of rising sea levels, and the wellbeing of women and children, the goal of the founder is for a community-driven, bottom-up development. The proposal improves the village’s existing housing and provides a safehouse for women and children, as well as spaces that provide education to end practices such as female genital mutilation. The proposal also includes guest houses and improvements to the village’s accessibility by road and by boat to make better connections with the outside world.
In the study for a community in rural Lithuania, this system resulted in a plan for a Fuggerei focussed on elderly poverty and a crisis in social care due to an aging population. Set in a forest that provides the necessary natural spaces, the plan includes a care facility with 40 rooms, facilities for education in social care for the community’s younger residents, and “special elements” that provide physical therapy spaces and community activity spaces.
Finally in Augsburg, the study’s formula manifests as a more dense, urban development. The proposal distinguishes itself from the original Augsburg Fuggerei by focusing on a different need: education, and the city’s potential to capitalise on the knowledge economy. The proposal is envisioned as a community that is younger on average, with shorter tenancy periods than in the other studies. Using modular construction techniques, this Fuggerei would adapt an existing building, and the Fuggerei’s “streets” are interpreted as a stackable element, with entries on multiple levels.
The Fuggerei of the Future research was presented as a book and in an exhibition inside the temporary NEXT500 Pavilion in Augsburg, also designed by MVRDV.
Gallery
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
Augsburg Educational Fuggerei
Augsburg Educational Fuggerei
Augsburg Educational Fuggerei
Augsburg Educational Fuggerei
Augsburg Educational Fuggerei
Augsburg Educational Fuggerei
Augsburg Educational Fuggerei
Augsburg Educational Fuggerei
Lithuania Fuggerei
Lithuania Fuggerei
Lithuania Fuggerei
Lithuania Fuggerei
Lithuania Fuggerei
Lithuania Fuggerei
Lithuania Fuggerei
Lithuania Fuggerei
Sierra Leone Fuggerei
Sierra Leone Fuggerei
Sierra Leone Fuggerei
Sierra Leone Fuggerei
Sierra Leone Fuggerei
Sierra Leone Fuggerei
Sierra Leone Fuggerei
Sierra Leone Fuggerei
Sierra Leone Fuggerei
Sierra Leone Fuggerei
Sierra Leone Fuggerei



































Credits
- Architect
- MVRDV:
- Founding partner in charge
- Director
- Design team
- Strategy & Development
- Copywriting
- Copyright
- MVRDV Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries: