The housing shortage is a global problem that cannot be resolved through market-driven models of home ownership. This book, therefore, postulates a radical shift from house to housing and from the individual to the collective. The reintroduction of the term "collective" is here understood as a mechanism to refocus housing as a community-building, solidarity-building, and city-building activity.

The book addresses the topic in four chapters—from alternative urban housing typologies and concepts of communal construction to historical models from which the current housing struggle can learn. The individual essays include examples from five different continents.