By Us, For Us is a project aimed at drafting a roadmap toward (re)introducing a ‘third option’ for housing development in Hong Kong through a series of Public Forums. While Hong Kong once had a cooperative housing policy alongside private and public options, the post-colonial political order since the 1997 handover has led to the erasure of existing cooperatives. Moreover, since the periods of social unrest in 2014 and 2019, most grassroots social movements have been restricted. This has made the ‘cooperative’ housing model, which was once considered occidental and predominantly colonial, no longer possible without profound reconsideration.

During the first few months of research and the initial By Us, For Us forum, exchanges confirmed the urgent need to address access to adequate housing and the importance and relevance of exploring a ‘third option’ for housing. However, these exchanges also revealed complexity and friction rooted in the colonial history of cooperatives in Hong Kong. A deeper understanding of these tensions and a reframing of possible trajectories in light of colonial issues and relations with China emerged as profoundly necessary for further research. We are currently developing ways of raising these questions through archival research, exchanges, and the cross-contamination of architectural and archival methodologies.