What is Cohousing?

Cohousing is a form of collaborative housing that offers residents an old-fashioned sense of neighborhood. In cohousing, residents know their neighbors very well and there is a strong sense of community that is absent in contemporary cities and suburbs.

Cohousing communities consist of private, fully-equipped dwellings and extensive common amenities including a common house and recreation areas. They are designed and managed by the residents who have chosen to live in a close-knit neighborhood that seeks a healthy blend of privacy and community.

How it Began

(from Jessica Boehland, "Cohousing: How Green is My Village?", Environmental Building News, September 2002)

"According to cohousing lore, 27 dedicated families near Copenhagen, Denmark became the first cohousing community in 1972. This bofcellesskaber or "living communities" model gained popularity and quickly spread throughout Denmark and Europe. In the 1980's, Americans Katheryn McCamant and Charles Durrett, seeking a supportive and vibrant environment in which to live and raise children, became intrigued by the Danish housing model. They shepherded the idea across the Atlantic and coined the term "cohousing" in 1988. While Denmark still leads the world in the popularity of cohousing (Durrett estimates that 1% of the Danish population lives in cohousing communities), other countries, including the United States, are experiencing growing interest in this alternative to conventional residental development. At Durrett's last count, 68 completed cohousing communities dotted the country, with many more in various phases of planning, design, or construction."

Six Common Cohousing Characteristics

(from McCamant & Durrett, The CoHousing Company):

• Participatory Process: Residents participate in the planning and design of the development so that it directly responds to their needs.
• Neighborhood Design: The physical design encourages a sense of community.
• Private Homes Supplemented by Extensive Common Facilities: Each household has a private residence - complete with a kitchen - but has access to all of the common facilities. The common house is designed for daily use and supplements private living areas. Facilities often extend beyond the common house to include children's play areas, vegetable gardens, and the like.
• Complete Resident Management: Residents take complete responsibility for ongoing management, organizing cooperatively to meet their changing needs.
• Non-Hierarchical Structure: While there are leadership roles, responsibility for the decisions is shared by the community's adults.
• Separate Income Sources: There is no shared community economy.

For more information, please see our cohousing links.

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