Habitat Participatif France is a national organisation dedicated to supporting and promoting participatory housing initiatives across France. As a movement, it traces its roots to the early 20th century with the development of community-driven projects such as the garden cities of the 1920s, and the “Castor” self-build collectives formed by families after World War II. These historical precedents illustrate the longstanding capacity of French citizens to shape their own living environments collectively.
Founded to provide structure and visibility to a fast-growing ecosystem, Habitat Participatif France facilitates the exchange of knowledge, connects local groups, and advocates for legal and policy recognition of participatory housing. The passage of the 2014 ALUR law, which explicitly defined and supported participatory housing, reflected the influence of such advocacy work.
The organisation documents numerous projects across France, ranging from urban co-housing to rural communities focused on ecological construction and shared governance. Its platform features testimonials and reports on completed and ongoing initiatives, enabling members to learn from various models—including self-managed communities and legal structures like cooperatives or societies for progressive property acquisition.
Habitat Participatif France’s scope covers information dissemination, networking events, legal guidance, and policy engagement. As of April 2022, the movement had marked the emergence of hundreds of groups experimenting with new forms of collective living, from small-scale retrofits to sizable new-build projects. The organisation’s work underlines the diversity of participatory housing, its legal variants, and its ability to adapt to changing social and environmental challenges.