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What is Cohousing?
Cohousing is the name of a type of collaborative housing that
attempts to overcome the alienation of modern subdivisions in
which no-one knows their neighbors, and there is no sense of
community. It is characterized by private dwellings with their
own kitchen, living-dining room etc, but also extensive common
facilities. The common building may include a large dining room,
kitchen, lounges, meeting rooms, recreation facilities, library,
workshops, childcare.
Usually, cohousing communities are designed and managed by
the residents, and are intentional neighborhoods: the people are
consciously committed to living as a community; the physical
design itself encourages that and facilitates social contact.
The typical cohousing community has 20 to 30 single family homes
along a pedestrian street or clustered around a courtyard.
Residents of cohousing communities often have several optional
group meals in the common building each week.
This type of housing began in Denmark in the late 1960s, and
spread to North America in the late 1980s. There are now more
than a hundred cohousing communities completed or in development
across the United States.
The Main Characteristics of Cohousing
As delivered by Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett at the 3rd
North American Cohousing Conference in Seattle, September, 1997
1. Participatory Process.
Resident participate in the planning and design of the
development of the community so that it directly responds to
their needs. (Developer initiated/driven projects are in no
way a threat to this. In most cases, developer initiation may
actually make it easier for more people to participate in the
process. On the other hand, a well-designed,
pedestrian-oriented community with no resident involvement in
the planning might be "cohousing inspired", but is
not a cohousing community.)
2. Neighborhood Design.
The physical design encourages a sense of community as well as
maintaining the option for privacy. (It is harder to define
here exactly what constitutes "encouraging a sense of
community,"but rather than saying it must be a
pedestrian-oriented design with the cars at the periphery, it
is more important that residents are involved in the decision
making (see above) and the intent must be to create a
"strong sense of community" with design as one of
the facilitators. (Getting together to afford your private
golf club does not do it.)
3. Private homes supplemented by common facilities.
Common facilities are designed for daily use; they are an
integral part of the community and typically include a dining
area, sitting area, children's play room, guest room, as well
as garden and other amenities. Each household owns a private
residence ---complete with kitchen--but also shares extensive
common facilities with the larger group. (Cohousing is not a
shared house. A shared house could be included in a cohousing
community but is a different community/housing type.)
4. Resident management.
After move-in.
5. Non-hierarchical structure and
decision-making.
There are leadership roles, but not leaders. The community is
not dependent on any one person, even though there is often a
"burning soul" that gets the community off the
ground, and another that pulls together the financing, and
another that makes sure you, the group, has babysitters for
meetings, and another...If your community has a leader that
sets policy or establishes standards unilaterally, it is not
cohousing.
6. The community is not a primary income source for
residents.
There is no shared community economy (ala Twin Oaks): If the
community provides residents with their primary income, this
is a significant change to the dynamic between neighbors and
defines another level of community beyond the scope of
cohousing.
Source:
http://www.cohousing.org/overview.aspx
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