ExRotaprint

The ExRotaprint model for urban development rules out financial profit and exponential growth. ExRotaprint is a non-profit based on the idea of Heritable Building Rights, meant to ensure long-term affordable rent and development for the common good. 

The Heritable Building Right Law was implemented in Germany after the First World War to stimulate housing construction and to enable lower-income populations to build their own homes without owning the land the house is built on.

The project goes back to an initiative from 2004 by Daniela Brahm & Les Schliesser, who wanted to take over the former industrial “Rotaprint” site in Berlin, and develop the location for heterogeneous mix of uses: art, community and work. 

Together with other tenants they founded a non-profit company and teamed up with two foundations to legally secure the project. The foundations bought the land and leased it to ExRotaprint for 99 years under the Heritable Building Right Law. 

ExRotaprint owns the buildings, manages and develops the site. 

As a non-profit organization, they are committed to non-profit objectives: any financial profits shall be invested in the preservation of the buildings and the promotion of art and culture. 

A goal that is consistent with the foundations, which are against property speculation and invest the revenues from the ground rent into similar co-housing and community projects. For the common good.

The goals of ExRotaprint are consistent with those of the foundations, which resist property speculation and invest revenues from rent into similar co-housing and community projects. Development for the common good.

Rents are the financial basis of the project. To finance the renovation, ExRotaprint took out a building loan with a Swiss pension fund, which committed itself – vis-à-vis its investors – to contribute to sustainable, social-oriented, ecological, or cultural projects.

Therefore, ExRotaprint was able to raise sustainable capital to develop the site. Nevertheless, this model is based on the willingness of the stakeholders to relinquish individual profit and their commitment to non-profit developments.

"Project development means not only buying and financing, but also creating common space. It should not be about maximizing returns, but about creating the best possible space for people."