What Is Cohousing?
Cohousing communities offer nurturing places where people of
all ages grow and age well. 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.
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 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, 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.
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.”
Cohousing communities offer nurturing places where people of
all ages grow and age well. 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.
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 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, 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.
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.”
