CDCUL (Consumer Demand for Circular Urban Living) is an exciting multinational research project funded by the European Commission’s Driving Urban Transitions programme. Involving research institutes and industry partners from the Netherlands, Sweden, and Slovenia, the project aims to understand whether and under what circumstances urban residents would be willing to share access to spaces and facilities typically accessed by isolated households. You can read about the project team here.
In today’s society, we often take for granted that certain spaces and facilities in our homes are exclusively ours. The CDCUL project explores alternative models where neighbors share access to spaces like kitchens, workspaces, workshops, tool libraries, and cargo bikes. This offers a potential for living in smaller household units while sharing access to certain facilities. This could potentially reduce cities’ environmental impact and resource consumption.
The project, which began in October 2023 and will continue through October 2026, is divided into four major phases:
- Choice Modeling Survey: A digital survey will be distributed to 3,000 respondents across the three participating countries to determine which features of shared-access services are most attractive to different customer segments. We are deep in this phase now and hope to deploy the survey in early Fall of 2024.
- Focus Groups: Focus groups in Sweden and Slovenia will help process and explain the survey results, exploring individuals’ willingness to live in slightly smaller housing units with shared facilities.
- Architectural Design: The findings will be translated into architectural floor plans and digital renderings, prescribing design for better neighborhood sharing.
- Reporting and Publishing: The project’s findings will be published in academic journals, and a results conference will be held in late summer or early fall of 2026.
Stay tuned for regular updates as we progress through each phase of this exciting journey!
