About Earthsong

What is Cohousing?

Cohousing is a type of collaborative housing in which residents actively participate in the design and operation of their own neighbourhoods. The cohousing idea originated in Denmark in the early 1970s, but the English name for it was coined in the U.S. in the early 1980s by architects Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett, authors of the seminal work The Cohousing Book. Since its inception, 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.

Physical Design

The physical design of a cohousing community encourages both social contact and individual space. Cars are kept at the edge of the site to create a pedestrian friendly neighbourhood designed for casual interaction and safe play for children. Private homes contain all the features of conventional homes, but residents also have access to extensive common facilities such as gardens, ponds, courtyards, orchards, playgrounds and, most importantly, the Common House; the social center of the neighbourhood. Common House facilities vary but usually include a large kitchen and dining room where residents take turns cooking for the community if they wish. Other facilities may include a laundry, child care facilities, offices, internet access, game room, TV room, or whatever else the residents build into the design. Through spatial design and shared social activities, cohousing facilitates intergenerational interaction among neighbours, for social, practical, and environmental benefits. Cohousing neighbourhoods can range in size from 6 to 70 residences, but most of them house 20 to 40 households. Regardless of the size of the community, there are many opportunities for casual meetings between neighbours, as well as for deliberate gatherings such as common meals, celebrations, clubs and business meetings.

Proven Concept

The Cohousing concept has been so successful and popular that it is rapidly being taken up all around the world. In the past 40 years, there have been over 300 completed cohousing projects in Denmark, 224 completed or in the planning stages in the United States, and many more in Europe, North America and Oceania. Nearer to home, Australia has 8 cohousing projects completed or in the planning stages in Hobart, Fremantle, Adelaide, the Gold Coast and Melbourne.

Why So Popular?

In Denmark, what we now call Cohousing was initially a response to the new challenges of rising costs, dual income households juggling children, work and meal preparation, divorce, and growing isolation. Danish cohousing neighbourhoods arose mainly "to create a strong social network for the nuclear family" (from "Collaborative Communities" by Dorrit Fromm (1991)). Those needs are even greater now, and with the current financial and climate change crises the needs (and demand for Cohousing) are likely to increase. In many countries the building can’t keep up with the demand , and there are long waiting lists to get into existing communities. Housing values typically soar after initial construction as word gets out about the advantages of this lifestyle. (For more on this see: Seattle Cohousing Market: Analyzing Supply and Demand through Appraisal Data and it's figures)

What makes cohousing communities unique?

While these characteristics aren't always true of every cohousing community, together they serve to distinguish cohousing from other types of collaborative housing:

1. Participatory process: Members organise and participate in the planning and design process for the housing development, and are responsible as a group for all the final decisions either with or without a separate developer.
2. Intentional Neighborhood design: The physical design encourages a strong sense of community and increases the possibilities for spontaneous social contact.
3. Common facilities: Each household has a complete private residence but has access to common areas and facilities, including a large common house, which are integrally designed for daily use to supplement private living areas.
4. Resident management: Residents manage the development, making decisions of common concern at community meetings using inclusive, participatory decision making processes.
5. Non-hierarchical structure and decision-making: While there are leadership roles, responsibility for the decisions is shared by the community's adults and no one person dominates the decisions or the community process.
6. Separate Income Sources: Households are responsible for their own income and finances and do not rely on the community for their primary income.

In a cohousing community, you know who lives six houses down because you eat common meals with them, decide how to allocate homeowners levies and gratefully accept a ride from them when your car is being serviced. 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.