Kotti & Co is a Berlin-based tenant initiative that formed at Kottbusser Tor in Kreuzberg in 2011 to fight against rising rents in their social housing buildings, which force more and more neighbours to move out. In 2012 Kotti & co occupied the square in front of the social housing at Kottbusser Tor (Kotti) with a self-built wooden house (Gecekondu – Turkish for ‘built overnight’): since then they have been protesting against the displacement of tenants with low incomes from the city centre and the high rents of Berlin’s social housing. Beside being a tenant initiative, Kotti & co is a project of diversity – bringing together a wide rage of different people, who would usually live a typical urban life next to each other but not connecting with each other.

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