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An Overview
Cohousing is a type of collaborative
housing in which residents actively participate in the design and
operation of their own neighborhoods. Private, resident-owned homes
contain all the features of conventional homes, but residents also
have access to common facilities such as a common house, green
spaces & gardens, and playground areas.
Cohousing residents are consciously committed to living as a
community. The physical design encourages both social contact and
individual space.
An Old-Fashioned Sense of Neighborhood
Cohousing communities are usually designed as attached or
single-family homes along one or more pedestrian streets or
clustered around a courtyard. They range in size from about 10 to
more than 50 residences, the majority of them housing 20 to 40
households. Regardless of the size of the community, there are many
opportunities for casual meetings between neighbors, as well as for
deliberate gatherings such as celebrations, clubs and business
meetings.
The common house is the social center of a community, with a large
dining room and kitchen, lounge, recreational facilities, children’s
spaces, and frequently a guest room, workshop and laundry room.
Communities usually serve optional group meals in the common house
at least two or three times a week.
The need for community members to take care of common property
builds a sense of working together, trust and support. Because
neighbors hold a commitment to a relationship with one another,
almost all cohousing communities use consensus as the basis for
group decision-making.
What Makes Cohousing Communities Unique?
The cohousing idea originated in Denmark, and was promoted in the
U.S. by architects Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett in the early
1980s. The Danish concept of “living community” has spread quickly.
Worldwide, there are now hundreds of cohousing communities,
expanding from Denmark into the U.S, Canada, Australia, Sweden, New
Zealand, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria and
elsewhere.
In a cohousing community, you know who lives six houses down because
you eat common meals with them, decide how to allocate homeowners
dues and gratefully accept a ride from them when your car’s in the
shop. You begin to trust them enough to leave your child with
them. You listen to what they have to say, even if you don’t agree
with them at first, and you sense that you, too, are being heard.
Cohousing residents generally aspire to “improve the world, one
neighborhood at a time.” This desire to make a difference often
becomes a stated mission, as the websites of many communities
demonstrate. For example, at Sunward Cohousing near Ann Arbor, MI,
the goal is to create a place “where lives are simplified, the earth
is respected, diversity is welcomed, children play together in
safety, and living in community with neighbors comes naturally.” At
Winslow Cohousing near Seattle, the aim is to have “a minimal impact
on the earth and create a place in which all residents are equally
valued as part of the community.” At EcoVillage at Ithaca, NY, the
site of two adjoining cohousing neighborhoods, the goal is “to
explore and model innovative approaches to ecological and social
sustainability.”
Many other communities have visions that focus specifically on the
value of building community. Sonora Cohousing in Tucson, AZ, seeks
“a diversity of backgrounds, ages and opinions, with our one shared
value being the commitment to working out our problems and finding
consensus solutions that satisfy all members.” Tierra Nueva
Cohousing in Oceano, CA, exists “because each of us desires a
greater sense of community, as well as strong interaction with and
support from our neighbors.”
All information on this page is from
Cohousing.org,
an invaluable resource to members of, and those interested in
cohousing communities. For more answers to frequently asked
questions about cohousing,
click
here.
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Prefer to read about cohousing offline?
Read
our "Introduction to Newberry Place" informational flyer
here.
The 6 Defining Characteristics
of
Cohousing:
1 - Participatory Process
Future residents participate in the
design of the community so that it meets their needs. Some cohousing
communities are initiated or driven by a developer. In those cases,
if the developer brings the future resident group into the process
late in the planning, the residents will have less input into the
design. A well designed, pedestrian-friendly community without
significant resident participation in the planning may be “cohousing-inspired,”
but it is not a cohousing community.
2 - Neighborhood Design
The physical layout and orientation of
the buildings (the site plan) encourage a sense of community. For
example, the private residences are clustered on the site, leaving
more shared open space. The dwellings typically face each other
across a pedestrian street or courtyard, with cars parked on the
periphery. Often, the front doorway of every home affords a view of
the common house. What far outweighs any specifics, however, is the
intention to create a strong sense of community, with design as one
of the facilitators.
3 - Common Facilities
Common facilities are designed for
daily use, are an integral part of the community, and are always
supplemental to the private residences. The common house typically
includes a common kitchen, dining area, sitting area, children's
playroom and laundry, and also may contain a workshop, library,
exercise room, crafts room and/or one or two guest rooms. Except on
very tight urban sites, cohousing communities often have playground
equipment, lawns and gardens as well. Since the buildings are
clustered, larger sites may retain several or many acres of
undeveloped shared open space.
4 - Resident Management
Residents manage their own cohousing
communities, and also perform much of the work required to maintain
the property. They participate in the preparation of common meals,
and meet regularly to solve problems and develop policies for the
community.
5 - Non-Hierarchical Structure & Decision-Making
Leadership roles naturally exist in
cohousing communities, however no one person (or persons) has
authority over others. Most groups start with one or two “burning
souls.” As people join the group, each person takes on one or more
roles consistent with his or her skills, abilities or interests.
Most cohousing groups make all of their decisions by consensus, and,
although many groups have a policy for voting if the group cannot
reach consensus after a number of attempts, it is rarely or never
necessary to resort to voting.
6 - No Shared Community Economy
The community is not a source of
income for its members. Occasionally, a cohousing community will pay
one of its residents to do a specific (usually time-limited) task,
but more typically the work will be considered that member's
contribution to the shared responsibilities. |
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