Towards mainstreaming of shared spaces as a basis for sustainable wellbeing for all

Like other rich countries, Switzerland is using energy and material at a per-capita rate far above the world average, contributing to multiple crises of climate, biodiversity, pollution, and numerous factors of human wellbeing, especially health, inequality, and exclusion. Based on human needs scholarship and a series of stakeholder workshops we organized, here we explore to what extent shared spaces could not only reduce resource use, but as a synergistic satisfier, improve wellbeing at the same time. Together with rethinking the economic system, governance, identity, and liberties, a significant output of the workshops has been the centrality of shared spaces. While shared spaces are nothing new, in today’s profit-driven, “private luxury, public frugality” culture, they have shrunk to a tiny residue. Making them central to space use could significantly reduce the average space per person, while providing access to more space when needed and improving wellbeing.