Nearly 250,000 new homes were completed last year in Germany - as many as only back in 2006. However, despite the boom, the increasing need will not be covered, according to our German member, GdW.

Every month we introduce you to one of the people leading the work of our member organisations. In this edition, we visit Zurich, in Switzerland. Urs Hauser, the director of the Swiss Housing Cooperatives introduces the organisation, gives us information about the perception of housing in the country and shares some thoughts about the current challenges at national and regional level. Plus, as usual, he presents his own way to strike a good life-work balance.

Through an original and collaborative format, the city of Lyon-Villeurbanne, hosted around 2.000 social housing actors for its "proximity Fablab" event that took place on 24 and 25 May. Social Innovation was the keyword of the event; innovation that will be driven by the ambition to revolutionize the notion of service in the social housing sector.