Cohousing

Cohousing playground next to Common House

A cohousing[1] community is a type of intentional community composed of private homes with full kitchens, supplemented by extensive common facilities. A cohousing community is planned, owned and managed by the residents, groups of people who want more interaction with their neighbours. Common facilities vary but usually include a large kitchen and dining room where residents can take turns cooking for the community. Other facilities may include a laundry, pool, child care facilities, offices, internet access, guest rooms, game room, TV room, tool room or a gym. Through spatial design and shared social and management activities, cohousing facilitates intergenerational interaction among neighbors, for the social and practical benefits. There are also economic and environmental benefits to sharing resources, space and items.[2][3]

In cohousing there is a strong emphasis on creating community. Members cook and share meals in the Common House on one, two or more nights a week. Shared child care, gardening, and other activities, as well as shared governance all foster a sense of community. Generally, consensus is used as a means of decision-making. That is, the effort is made to hear all voices in the community, and to make major decisions only with the agreement of all members.

In describing New York City's first co-housing project, a recent New York Times article said co-housing "speaks to people who want to own an apartment but not feel shut off by it, lost in an impersonal city."[4]

Contents

[edit] Origins of cohousing

The modern theory of cohousing originated in Denmark in the 1960s among groups of families who were dissatisfied with existing housing and communities that they felt did not meet their needs. Bodil Graae wrote a newspaper article titled "Children Should Have One Hundred Parents,"[5] spurring a group of 50 families to organize around a community project in 1967. This group developed the cohousing project Sttedammen, which is the oldest known cohousing community in the world. Another key organizer was Jan Gudmand Hyer who drew inspiration from his architectural studies at Harvard and interaction with experimental U.S. communities of the era. He published the article "The Missing Link between Utopia and the Dated Single Family House" [6] in 1968, converging a second group.

The Danish term bofllesskab (living community) was introduced to North America as cohousing by two American architects, Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett, who visited several cohousing communities and wrote a book about it.[2] The book resonated with some existing and forming communities, such as Sharingwood in Washington state and N Street in California, who embraced the cohousing concept as a crystallization of what they were already about. Though most cohousing groups seek to develop multi-generational communities, some focus on creating senior communities. Charles Durrett later wrote a handbook on creating senior cohousing.[3] The first community in the United States to be designed, constructed and occupied specifically for cohousing is Muir Commons in Davis, California.[7][8] Architects, Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett were responsible for the programming and the design of the site plan, common house and private houses.

[edit] Growth of cohousing

Hundreds of cohousing communities exist in Denmark and other countries in northern Europe. There are more than 113 operating communities in the United States with more than 100 others in the planning phases. In Canada, there are 9 completed communities, and approximately 15 in the planning/construction process. There are also communities in Australia, the UK and other parts of the world.

[edit] Design

Because each cohousing community is planned in its context, a key feature of this model is its flexibility to the needs and values of its residents and the characteristics of the site. Cohousing can be urban, suburban or rural. The physical form is typically compact but varies from low-rise apartments to townhouses to clustered detached houses. They tend to keep cars to the periphery which promotes walking through the community and interacting with neighbors as well as increasing safety for children at play within the community. Shared green space is another characteristic, whether for gardening, play, or places to gather. When more land is available than is needed for the physical structures, the structures are usually clustered closely together, leaving as much of the land as possible "open" for shared use. This aspect of cohousing directly addresses the growing problem of suburban sprawl.

The Sunward Cohousing community illustrating greenspace preservation, tightly clustered housing, and parking on periphery, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2003.

In addition to "from-scratch" new-built communities (including those physically retrofitting/re-using existing structures), there are also "retrofit" (aka "organic") communities in which neighbors create "intentional neighborhoods" by buying adjacent properties and removing fences. Often, they create common amenities such as Common Houses after the fact, while living there. N Street Cohousing in Davis, CA, is the canonical example of this type; it came together before the term Cohousing was popularized here.

Cohousing differs from some types of intentional communities in that the residents do not have a shared economy or a common set of beliefs or religion, but instead invest in creating a socially rich and interconnected community. A non-hierarchical structure employing a consensus decision-making model is common in managing cohousing. Individuals do take on leadership roles, such as being responsible for coordinating a garden or facilitating a meeting.

[edit] Ownership form

Cohousing communities in the U.S. typically rely on one of three existing legal forms of real estate ownership: individually titled houses with common areas owned by a homeowner association, condominiums or a housing co-operative. Condo ownership is most common because it fits financial institutions' and cities' models for multi-unit owner-occupied housing development. U.S. banks lend more readily on single-family homes and condominiums than housing cooperatives.

Cohousing differs from standard condominium development and master-planned subdivisions because the development is designed by, or with considerable input from, its future residents. The design process invariably emphasizes consciously fostering social relationships among its residents. Common facilities are based on the actual needs of the residents, rather than on what a developer thinks will help sell units. Turnover in cohousing developments is typically very low, and there is usually a waiting list for units to become available.

[edit] Further reading

  • McCamant, Kathryn; Durrett, Charles. Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves (2nd Edition), Ten Speed Press, 1994, ISBN 0898155398.
  • Meltzer, Graham S. "Sustainable Community: Learning from the Cohousing Model." Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Press, 2005, ISBN 1412049946.
  • ScottHanson, Chris; ScottHanson, Kelly. The Cohousing Handbook: Building a Place for Community (2nd Edition). Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers, 2005 ISBN 0-86571-517-3.
  • Williams, Jo. Designing neighbourhoods for social interaction: The case of cohousing, " Journal of Urban Design," 2005, Vol.10, No. 2, 195-227.
  • Diggers and Dreamers

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cohousing definition (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin 2000).
  2. ^ a b McCamant, Kathryn; Durrett, Charles. "Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves." Berkeley, Ca.: Ten Speed Press, 1994.
  3. ^ a b Durrett, Charles. "Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living." Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers, 2009.
  4. ^ "The Real Park Slope Co-op". The New York Times, Robert Sullivan, 1, 2009. http://nymag.com/realestate/features/61743/. 
  5. ^ Graae, Bodil. "Brn skal have Hundrede Foraeldre", "Politiken" [Copenhagen], April 1967.
  6. ^ Gudmand-Hyer, Jan. "Det manglende led mellem utopi og det foraeldede en familiehus." "Information" 26 June 1968
  7. ^ McCamant, Kathryn; Charles Durrett and Ellen Hertzman (1994). Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves (2nd ed.). Ten Speed Press. p. 208. ISBN 0-89815-539-8. "Muir Commons is the first cohousing community to be built in the United States." 
  8. ^ Norwood, Ken; Kathleen Smith (1995). Rebuilding Community in America: Housing for Ecological Living, Personal Empowerment, and the New Extended Family. Shared Living Resource Center. p. 111. ISBN 0-9641346-2-4. "Muir Commons was the first CoHousing community to be built entirely new in the United States." 

[edit] External links

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Related topics in the Connexions Subject Index

Alternatives  –  Co-housing  –  Co-operative Housing  –  Housing  –  Housing Costs  –  Housing & the Environment  –  Housing Innovations  –  Housing Policies & Programs  –  Left History  –  Libraries & Archives  –  Social Change  – 


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