5 years of Coco Velten

Coco Velten is the story of a challenge taken up in 2017 by the members of Lab Zéro (a public policy innovation laboratory within the Bouches du Rhône Prefecture that brought together members of civil society and public institutions).

They set themselves the goal of zero homelessness in Marseilles by 2027, which at the time meant sheltering more than 15,000 homeless people.

Coco Velten picked up the legacy of an important previous experience: Les Grands Voisins in Paris, a temporary occupation of the former Saint Vincent de Paul hospital in the 14th arrondissement of Paris from 2015 to 2020.

Les Grands Voisins brought together on a 3.4 hectare site several thousand people who lived there (up to 600 emergency accommodation places), worked (250 workshop-office spaces) and shared common spaces (a restaurant, a cultural space, multi-use rooms, a craft workshop, a campsite, outdoor spaces, etc.). The organisations that ran the site were then contacted by Lab Zéro to replicate a similar experiment in Marseille.

The initial idea, in 2017, was to occupy a State-owned vacant building to test emergency accommodation in the city center for 80 people, close to the Gare Saint Charles in the heart of Belsunce, a priority district of the city of Marseille. The accommodation, occupied by a total of 186 residents, proved that the dynamics of a hybrid place could contribute to social integration and the fight against precariousness.

Over 5 years (2018-2023), 59 social economy organisations, associations, artists' groups,  craftspeople and 256 volunteers have been actively involved in the project, helping to keep it open and accessible to all.

To create a place, you have to leave room for appropriation and indeterminacy. This methodology of “welcoming the possible” is based on trust and acceptance of change, of the evolution of the spaces according to the needs and desires that emerge. 

Coco Velten's vocation was to be a resource center, to act as a platform and to welcome any desire for voluntary involvement. From the outset, the steering team defined a number of polymorphous common spaces that could be easily transformed to serve different purposes. These common spaces were designed to accommodate collective initiatives, offering a number of testing grounds to experiment with new projects, to invest in the spaces over the long term, without financial compensation but with a return on the place.