Building layers are the components of a building that each carry their own life span: land, structure, façade, services, fit-out and materials. Co-Operate ties financing and ownership to the duration of each layer separately, rather than to the building as a single indivisible whole.
Layers with a long life, such as land and structure, call for stewardship and patient capital. Layers that wear out sooner, such as services and fit-out, call for maintenance, reuse and replacement, and lend themselves to local value systems. Investor and life cycle are matched to one another, which turns time into a practical design medium for ownership, financing and material use. Source: Co-Operate project dossier — A neighbourhood for seven generations, New Economy (2021).