What is Cohousing?
Cohousing is an intentional community model with shared values that is designed and managed by the community members. A cohousing community consists of families, single people, couples and adults from a variety of backgrounds, bringing different skills and having differing needs. Residents have their own private housing units but also share communal facilities. They manage the development of the community, share activities and support each other. The aim of cohousing is to overcome many of the inherent problems with individualised housing, such as affordability and isolation, and to ensure more sustainable living practices.
The initial community members develop and co-design the community and housing project. Later, as the community grows or changes, the residents manage, maintain and share communal activities. There is a balance between private and communal spaces and engagement. An important principle of a cohousing community is collective ownership and management of the community and its spaces. To this end, financial and legal aspects are co-designed and the community develops its own democractic form of governance.
Click here to see the UK Cohousing Network website for more information on cohousing in the UK.
Key elements of cohousing
- Co-design of the community
- Collective ownership and control by community members
- Balance between private and communal spaces
- Inclusive and links with the wider community
How cohousing fits into local structures
Cohousing projects are connected with the broader local community in which the project is based. On a macro scale, a project may contribute to the development of a greater range of affordable housing for local residents who are members of the cohousing community. Additionally, it creates a model for the development of other cohousing and/or community based living initiatives within the local environment. This has clear spillover benefits for the broader community.
Indeed, cohousing is a modern concept of a way of life that is already common in many parts of the world and in earlier traditional forms of society, which has been eroded in individualised property owning societies such as the UK. Therefore, the aim is to bring some of the benefits of community based living into a structure that is compatible with modern life. This is important, because the current climate of ever increasing house prices and an increasingly unaffordable rental market requires new solutions.
The intention is also to provide a model for safe neighborhoods and expanded community-based interaction within the local borough. For example, some cohousing projects also include communal spaces that local community organisations and or those seeking to hold events can access or share.
Cohousing Harrow will work with local structures around planning and design, and with local people and the council to create a low impact way of living and architecture that contributes to the local space rather than imposing or eroding the existing environment.
History and examples from the UK and abroad
Cohousing schemes bring together like-minded individuals who collectively run their own housing. Each household has its own self-contained home, but residents come together to manage their community and share activities. It is a form of housing which helps to tackle alienation and isolation through a strong emphasis on neighbourliness.
The first cohousing community was built in 1972 for 27 families, close to Copenhagen, Denmark. Since then cohousing spread rapidly, and today 1 percent of the Danish population, about 50,000 people live, in cohousing.
Sweden also has a long-standing cohousing tradition. The Swedish feminist movement played a key role inpromoting cohousing as a way to share common chores more equally between the gend ers. Today, the association Kollektivhus Nu (“Cohousing Now”) successfully promotes the idea across the country. In Sweden most of the Cohousing projects are state-owned, as they were developed as part of a large societal project of an active welfare state. Recently built cohousing, however, is now also privately owned.
The Netherlands‘ first cohousing (“Centraal Wonen”) was built in the mid-70s. Today there are more than 100 Centraal Wonen projects. The Netherlands have created a particular type of cohousing model, which is based on the organisation of large cohousing communities into clusters of 5 to 10 units. Each of these clusters has its own common facilities and the right to choose its new members, however, there is one large commonly shared building for parties, meetings etc. Around half the cohousing projects in the Netherlands are large scale. There are some 300 senior cohousing communities (“Groepswonen van Ouderen”) in the Netherlands.
In Germany the opportunity of the ‘baugruppen’ model for groups to access land has led to significant growth in cohousing. There are more than 150 Cohousing projects in Berlin’s region alone, making Berlin a worldwide centre for Cohousing.
Cohousing is now growing elsewhere in Europe, namely in France, Spain, Belgium, and Italy. In Italy two types of cohousing organisations have emerged: Cohousing Venture, a private cohousing consultancy firm, and CoHabitando and CoAbitare, both non-profit companies. The Danish term bofællesskab (living community) was introduced to North America as Cohousing by two American architects, Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett. Since the first cohousing community was completed in the United States – Muir Commons in Davis, California, now celebrating 25 years – more than 160 communities have been established in 25 states, with more than 125 in development. Cohousing is also gaining popularity across Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
Cohousing began in the UK at the end of the 1990s. The movement has gradually built up momentum and there are now 19 built cohousing communities. A further 60+ cohousing groups are developing projects and new groups are forming all the time.