100 projects of crowdfunding in architecture
Crowdfunding, in architectural context in particular, is a quite new development. People have the chance to take part in the process of planing or the realisation of architectural projects, to bring in their ideas and provide money to support a cause they care about. It can been seen as a new tool to create a new built environment for themselves or others in need.
The research took place from October to November 2014. The analysis, based on one hundred architectural projects, illustrates who participates, where the projects take place, what are the most common funding types are, how much money is provided and which building typologies are being developed and built. The research has been summarised in an excel-list and afterwards sorted and interpreted in sub items. This list is a snapshot representativ for currently funded, not funded and on going projects.
Contents
websites
The projects have been selected from the following websites:
- 40 projects - kickstarter.com
- 10 projects - fundrise.com
- 10 projects - startnext.de
- 4 projects - makearchitecturehappen.com
- 3 projects - fundedbyme.com
- 2 projects - 100-days.com
- 2 projects - kisskissbankbank.com
- 2 projects - visionbakery.com
- 2 projects - spacehive.com
- 2 projects - all-zesamme.de
- 2 projects - crowdfunding.at
- 1 project - kapitalfreunde.de
- 1 project - crowdcube.com
- 1 project - globalgiving.org
- 1 project - gofundme.com
- 1 project - projektstarter.ch
- 1 project - rockethub.com
- 1 project - sponsume.com
- 1 project - 1000x1000.at
- 1 project - wemakeit.com
- 1 project - companisto.com
- 1 project - nordstarter.org
As shown in the graphic, most architectural projects were found on kickstarter.com, which also depends on the fact, that kickstarter.com is the biggest and most known international website for crowdfunding projects in general. Probably the most known German website is startnext.de.
Projects on websites, which are visited more frequently tend to be funded more often, because the chance to get more backers is obvious. Most of the time the big websites are also more clearly structured, so you can find the information you need very quickly. This could also be a reason, why backers spend their money on this websites, because they feel more save or included.
Fundrise.com represents a special case. The projects found on this website are only lending-based and most of them belong to the subdivison ‘residential‘. People lend their money in forms of loans to the initiator to realise the projects and get it refunded in a predeterminated period with a set interest rate.
icons
In all graphics the following icons were used to visualise and help understand the main statement quicker. This is the key to the meanings:
building typologies
Since the research only includes projects in an architectural context, it was highly important to see what kind of architectural typologies were mostly funded. The projects have been divided into following categories:
- Commercial - projects on any matter of business
- Community - projects provided for the community and their needs
- Culture - projects inluding all forms of fine and performing arts
- Education - projects aiming to spread knowledge
- Hybrid - projects with a mix-used purpose
- Public Space - projects taking place outdoors including landscape architecture
- Residential - projects including all forms of housing and living
- Technology - projects and ideas with the aim to upgrade buildings (e.g. sustainability)
The group of residential buildings is the most initiated followed equally by education and culture. You can read in the graphic below, that residential buildings are also very likely to be funded and it‘s the only typology (exept hybrid, which also includes residential in this case), where a lending-based type of crowdfunding exists. But still in every typology reward-based crowdfunding comes in first place.
For the ,good causes‘ like education, culture, community and even public space, the community itself tends to be the biggest group of initiators and seems to be quite good funded. For residential buildings a lot of companies start the projects, where also a quite high amount of money is involved. The following two circle shaped graphics show quite easy, how much money is searched (first graphic) and provided (second graphic) for in the different types of typology. The amounts of money have been divided into several groups and listed in the graphic how often they occur in which typology.
initiators
The research showed that the people, who start up projects on crowdfunding websites, can be summed up in four groups:
- company
- community
- private
- student
types of crowdfunding
There are four types of crowdfunding known so far:
- reward based crowdfunding: funders provide money in exchange for rewards based on levels that correspond to pledge amounts
- donation based crowdfunding: funders donate money to support a cause they care about
- lending based crowdfunding: funders provide money in the form of loans that they will get refunded over a pre-determined timeline with a set interest rate
- equity based crowdfunding / crowdinvestment: funders provide money in exchange of actual shares in a private company for capital
reward based
donation based
lending based and equity based
funding status
The projects for the excel chart were not chosen completely random, although, besides kickstarter.com, startnext.de and fundrise.com, it was really hard to find architectural crowdfunding projects and we almost picked everything we could find. But for example on kickstarter.com are many many more not funded projects, still we decided to chose more funded projects from this website. Many of the not funded projects do not have a good description, no graphic material and missing informations, so you can see there there was not a lot dedication or ambition behind it. This graphic is very important to show which architectural typologies, which initiators and which type of crowdfunding are most likely to be funded or not funded.
Residential is the group with the most funded projects, but for example five out of seven technology projects were funded, which is also very good on average. Most not funded projects are culture projects, but in contrast to eight not funded projects, they also have eight funded projects.
The most funded initiator is the company. Maybe the know how to be successful or have more time and money to invest in their project. Also many projects of companies are lending-based or investment-based and they tend to be quite successful. A lot of project initiated by communties are not funded, but even more are funded. Also students get funded very often, while other private persons seem to be the weakest group.
Reward-based projects are the most funded and the most not funded type of crowdfunding at the same time. That's possible because reward-based projects are the largest type of crowdfunding in general - 71 per cent of all types together. Ten out of twelve lending-based were funded. This shows that crowdfunding really can be seen as new form of loans besides the old bank system. Donation-based projects are funded and funded equally, which probably means it just depends on the project.
locations
Even though the research conducts only on English or German speaking websites, the projects take place all over the world. This graphic gives an short overview of the initiators origin country and the maximum amount of money one has pledged for. The German project is one out of three equity-based crowdfunding projects in the excel chart. Its goal was to gain 1.25 Mio Dollars, but it turned out people invested almost five and a half time more money than the actual goal. The second and third largest projects in the USA and in Austria are lending-based. Great Britains most successful project is about public space to turn an concrete flyover in Liverpool into an urban park and it's donation-based. Not that successful is the project in Colombia about an ecoclimate green school for the tropics. Yet it didn't receive any money, but the donation-based project is still in progress.
aid projects
In the research we came across quite a lot of aid projects - in numbers: 17 out of 100 - which are donation- or also even more often reward-based. Many rewards are thank-you-letters, thank-you-drawings or some other kind of appreciation, but still they are gifts. Most of the crowdfunding projects are residential buildings for refugees or other people in need. The initiators come from all groups of initiators, but the majority of cases are still communities and students. This map visualises where the aid-projects take place and where their initiators come from.
The aid projects are mostly initiated in west-european countries and north america, while the actual projects take place in southern countries. If an aid project is for example initiated in the USA for the USA, it is not so likely to be funded, while for example Cambodia initiated and funded a project for themselves. Unfortunately there are no informations where the funders of the projects come from. Maybe the initiators themself can see, where their backers come from, but for the rest it is not possible.
the average project
The average project is a fake project playing with the stereotypes of the research according to the excel chart. The graphic gives an overview what the most average project would look like and its characteristics.
