Färdknäppen is a house for people who have reached ”the second part of life”.
Färdknäppen is a tenement house, owned by the municipal housing company Familjebostäder, located on Södermalm in Stockholm.
We who live here co-create a community in our daily lives, which makes life both easier and more fun as we grow older.
- We cook in teams that prepare shared meals on weekdays
- We take care of the building and garden ourselves
- We learn from each other while carrying out our daily chores
We can help each other keep our spirits up if – or when – our strength diminishes.
How large is the house, how large are the apartments?
The house has 43 flats, comprising 1, 2 or 3 rooms each (all with a fully equipped kitchen) measuring between 37 to 75 square meters, plus ca. 400 square meters of shared common areas.
Most of the common space is located on the ground floor. The area is flexibly planned for many purposes: a library/sitting room with a TV and a laptop, a room for sewing and ironing, a laundry room, a large dining room and kitchen, and a workshop for carpentry, bicycle repairs and furniture restoration etc. A small garden with trees, flowers and lawn is reached from the dining room.
On the top floor of the house, there is a meeting room with a fireplace and a sunny roof terrace all around.
There is a fully equipped recycling area inside the building on the ground floor, where the residents can dispose of most materials. We also have a give-away-shelf where we can put things we do not need anymore, but that might be of use to someone else.
The basement includes individual storage rooms and our collective pantry, and the air raid shelter functions as a gym next to the sauna.
We have a small office, equipped with a computer, scanner, copying machine and office supplies, which can be used by everyone. There are also three small guest rooms available at a very low cost to our out-of-town guests.
In other words, everyone living in the house has – for the price of an average sized apartment – access to a home of ca 400 square meters!
The common areas are a part of everyone’s home, and the entrance door to our shared home is the main entrance to Färdknäppen from the street. We are at home inside this door and in all parts of the house.
For whom is this house planned?
To be eligible for moving in, you have to:
- First become a member of the Färdknäppen association. The association now (2025) has 54 members living at Färdknäppen and 60 external members living outside of Färdknäppen.
- Embrace the idea of collaborative co-housing in “the second half of life”.
- Not have any children under the age of 18 living at home.
When a flat is vacant, it is first offered to the people already living at Färdknäppen who get a chance to move to a smaller or bigger one. After that it is offered to all the external association members, regardless of how long time they have been a member. We have a “contact group” which is responsible for contacts with external members and interested applicants. The contact group interviews those who have applied for the flat and then proposes a future tenant to the landlord Familjebostäder. Familjebostäder signs the lease with the new tenant/s. The email address to the contact group is posted below.
To be appreciated and needed, and to contribute to and be a part of a social community, are basic human needs that support health and wellbeing. No one need suffer from involuntary loneliness and you can choose voluntary solitude.
It is important that the people living at Färdknäppen are of different ages. Ideally, about half of the residents would still be working and the other half retired. But, as we tend to live long here at Färdknäppen, most of the residents are now pensioners. That is why age is a criterion when new tenants are proposed to the landlord.
Everyone who lives in the house is obliged to, every sixth week, take part in both a cooking and cleaning team. This doesn’t mean, though, that everyone must be a good cook or that all of us must put in the same amount of work or time. “From each according to their ability” is stated in the rules of the Färdknäppen association.
Why chose to live in this way?
The advantages of living at Färdknäppen are many and of course differ for every individual. How much social contact and “togetherness” one desirers varies, from person to person and from one period in life to another.
Apart from bringing many social contacts, living at Färdknäppen also involves substantial practical and financial advantages. The communal meals save both time and work for the individual. The meals are paid for individually by a coupon system, and are less expensive than meals prepared in a single household. The coupon price covers the costs of the foodstuffs which are largely bought at wholesale prices and delivered to the door. Kitchen utensils, cutlery and cleaning materials etc. are paid for through the association’s budget.
At Färdknäppen we don’t need to buy and pay for (and neither use private space for) a private washing machine, ironing board, sewing machine, computer, TV, daily newspaper etc. since it is all available and shared in the common area. Access to a carpentry room and tools, makes repairs and maintenance possible which otherwise would have to be done by professionals.
Even though most of the apartments are relatively small, it is possible to entertain guests and to arrange parties in the communal rooms. The house is not off-limits for children. Children and grandchildren are frequent guests in the house. Grandparents often take care of their grandchildren to give the parents a break. Children like it at Färdknäppen, to play in the gym downstairs and to eat in the dining room with other people. We have seen many children “grow up” at Färdknäppen!
At the moment (2025) we are 54 residents ranging in age between 50+ and 90+, spanning two generations. We have a wealth of experience and knowledge to share with each other. We learn something new every day at Färdknäppen, because the community is rich in both material and human resources.
Planning, preparing and sharing the main meal of the day, five days a week, is the main activity around which many other activities originate and develop. Eating in the dining room is voluntary, not everyone eats there every day. We arrange many social activities together, such as lectures, musical evenings, pub evenings, going to the theatre, films or exhibitions, outings to go bird watching etc. etc., – all depending upon the initiatives and interests of the members.
Of course, this way of life is also not always easy – it brings about conflicts as well, but even conflicts can be enriching, and we learn every day more about how to solve them.
How did Färdknäppen come about?
The initiative to create Färdknäppen was taken by several middle-aged people – most of them women – who were concerned about their future and what their living conditions would be as they grew older. They formulated two questions:
• How can middle-aged and elderly people help each other acquire more social contact, have a better quality of life and be less dependent on municipal service through living closer to each other in a suitable environment?
• How should an apartment house be designed in order to encourage middle-aged people to leave “the empty nest” when the children have moved out, so that the large apartments can be used by other families with children?
The answers are embedded in Färdknäppen of today. But the route to the completion of the house was long. The association was established in 1987, and for the first two years we discussed our ideas, searched for possible projects, and called on politicians and other decision makers.
In 1989 the municipally owned housing company, Familjebostäder, offered to build a house for us on the site at Södra Station, and we began an intensive dialog with architects, project supervisors and builders concerning the planning, the interior layout and appliances for the future house.
The co-operation with Familjebostäder has resulted in a house which closely corresponds to our original vision. The house functions well in daily life.
Familjebostäder has later, after seeing that many people wish to live in this way, built three more houses in the Stockholm area, all based on the “Färdknäppen model”.
Financing
All tenants pay rent for the space of their apartment plus for a portion of the shared common areas (measured in proportion to the size of the individual apartments). This means that the association and its members have entire disposal of the house, ensuring that the association can keep the price for e.g. a night in the guest rooms at a low level. Included in the rent are costs for maintenance, reparation and exchange of the shared amenities, such as washing machines, dishwashers, stoves, fridges and freezers.
The tenants look after the house by cleaning (stairwells, landings, and all common areas, including the kitchen) as well as simple maintenance (changing light bulbs, looking after the recycling area etc.). The tenants also tend for the garden. The housing company then refunds the association for this work, plus a refund or a raise in rent depending on the amount of water and heating used within the building.
The members pay a yearly membership fee, and some activities (receiving study groups, having “open house” with coffee and cakes etc.) also generate income.
Sustainable development
The field of sustainable development can be conceptually broken into three parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and sociopolitical sustainability.
Our experience through living at Färdknäppen is that:
Sociopolitically
• People can have a high quality of life even at old age and maintain a high degree of autonomy without having to strain family relationships or be totally dependent on municipal care.
• The network provided by the association’s membership creates possibilities beyond the reach of each individual.
• Less energy is needed and spent when people share amenities and services
• Less energy is spent when meals are prepared collectively
• Less waste of food when leftovers are taken care of
• Less packaging waste (paper, plastic, glass, metal) when dinner is made communally rather than in every single household
• Less paper waste when 43 households share newspaper subscriptions.
Economically
• When people share amenities and provide services and cultural activities for each other, it is easier for the individual to get by on a tight budget
• Shared meals are cheaper when an association can buy at wholesale prices
• The society in general has lesser and fewer expenses for social services when elderly people are empowered and supported in their daily lives through a housing system such as Färdknäppen
• The housing company has a well-kept house at a minimum maintenance cost – there is no vandalizing of any kind at Färdknäppen. Experiences from other co-housing projects for people of all ages show that the tenants look after “their” house better than “regular” tenants do.
If you want to know more about Färdknäppen or want to visit us to study the house, please contact
Kollektivhusföreningen Färdknäppen
Fatbursgatan 29 A
S-118 54 Stockholm
telephone +46 8 668 95 85
www.fardknappen.se
info at fardknappen.se
The Contact Group
kontaktgruppen at fardknappen.se
AB Familjebostäder
Hammarby Fabriksväg 67
S-120 30 Stockholm
telephone +46 8 737 20 00
kontakt@familjebostader.com
The Swedish national association for cohousing
www.kollektivhus.se
The ground floor of Färdknäppen includes a large entrance area (1), a common kitchen (2), dining room (3), living room with library, internet PC (4), sewing corner (5), laundry room (6) and a hobby/carpentry room (7).