Living together at the Forum means first of all that you run into each other. In the courtyards, at the paper bin, in the Vorratskammer, on the stairs. The distances are short, the doors often open. Anyone who moves in knows more neighbours after a few weeks than they would elsewhere after years.
That does not happen by itself. There are structures that make encounters plannable, and people who keep them going. The two together have carried this for fifty years.
Places
At the heart of it is the common room at Köpenicker Straße 175, which the Forum finally allowed itself in 2022 after a long run-up. The working groups meet here, birthdays are celebrated here, arguments are had here. Then there are the courtyards with the play ship, jointly tended beds and seating islands, the roof terrace with its garden at Eisenbahnstraße 21, and the beehives on the roof.
Rituals
The year has its rhythm: spring clean, summer party, autumn clean, Advent bazaar. On the last Thursday of the month the open format Forum im Gespräch meets. And on the ForumsBlitze, the action days, everyone pitches in on whatever has been left undone. Anyone who feels like celebrating comes to the parties.
Generations
Children grow up at the Forum whose parents were children here. The older members of the founding generation still live right in the middle of it, since 2016 also step-free in the new building with a lift. Old and young live here as neighbours, sometimes almost as family.
So now I watch from my balcony as the 80-year-old grandfather smiles and the 5-year-old granddaughter whoops as she jumps into the paper bin. Was that a multi-generational house? Certainly. And it leaves me sure that I am in the right place.
S. Cojaniz, resident
And when it grates?
Self-management is hard work. People have different ideas about what a courtyard should look like, how much commitment can reasonably be asked of anyone, how fast the Forum may change. Those conflicts are fought out, in the plenary, in the committees, sometimes over months. It costs energy and is at the same time the reason the community holds: decisions are made with each other, not about each other.
Curious to see it? On our guided tours about architecture and co-operative living we show how all of this works day to day. Just get in touch.