CSR [4W]: Co-operative Stewardship Residences for the Workforce

This project explores an alternative take on what the business world refers to as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Addressing CSR from the perspective of adequate and affordable housing for the working class, it transforms the CSR label for its own agenda: Co-operative Stewardship Residences for the workforce, CSR [4W]. The CSR [4W] model envisions a framework where companies provide funds and/or financial backing for creating long-term affordable, worker-led co-operative housing. All inhabitants and the involved company become equitable ‘one share one vote’ members of the co-operative, ensuring that the workers are empowered to participate in the housing’s creation and management. While the CSR [4W] statutes will render housing projects unsaleable, they will enable companies to leverage them as active assets for other financial undertakings. Based on this model, the here proposed CSR [4W] project in Koreatown provides a series of elements for the neighborhood: affordable workforce housing, public space, and production venues for the emerging industry of retrofitting cars into electric vehicles. Despite its large scale, the project’s spatial organization provides flexible housing setups and communal spaces on multiple levels, reflecting CSR [4W]’s model of shared responsibility and sense of community.