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Cohousing is a type of collaborative housing in which residents
actively participate in the design and operation of their
own neighborhoods.
Cohousing residents are consciously committed to living
as a community. The physical design encourages both social
contact and individual space. Private homes contain all
the features of conventional homes, but residents also have
access to extensive common facilities such as open space,
courtyards, a playground and a common house. See our Frequently
Asked Questions, below, and the widely quoted Six
Defining Characteristics of Cohousing.
An old-fashioned sense of neighborhood
Cohousing communities are often designed as attached homes
along one or more pedestrian streets or clustered around
a courtyard. They range in size from 7 to 67 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 and
workshop. 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 4-year-old 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.”
For more on "What is Cohousing," see the widely
quoted Six
Defining Characteristics of Cohousing.
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