The Threshold Centre
About Cohousing
A new approach
to affordable,
sustainable
housing
The essence of cohousing is a combination of self-contained dwelling units with some shared facilities. Each household has its own front door and can live independently. Alongside this are shared facilities where residents can eat together when they wish, and often also a shared sitting room, guest rooms, laundry etc. The major benefits of cohousing include:
- Affordability: The shared facilities mean that individual units can be smaller and hence more affordable. Sharing transport, childcare, food purchasing and production also help reduce living costs. Most cohousing groups have some units available for affordable rent.
- Sustainability: A cohousing group can live more ecologically than a single household: for example, through car pooling, shared shopping, sustainable energy systems. Having more social contacts and some work opportunities where you live reduces the need for car use.
- Community: Cohousing creates many of the qualities of a traditional neighbourhood or small village. It makes it easy for people to socialise and support each other. It creates a safe and supportive setting, especially helpful for older people and young families.
- Autonomy: Cohousing enables individuals and households to maintain a high degree of independence: they can choose how much interaction with the wider group they want. Whilst some group agreements are essential, these are kept to a minimum.
History
The cohousing concept developed in the mid-1960's in Denmark: 5% of all Danish households now live in cohousing. This is helped by government policy support, recognising its social and environmental benefits. Cohousing developments can also be found elsewhere in Scandinavia, and increasingly in the Netherlands and North America.
Cohousing
Features
Cohousing is the combination of four essential elements:
- Self-contained dwellings with shared facilities: Individual units can range from 1-room studios to 4-bed houses, but all will have their own kitchen, bathroom, living and sleeping space. The shared facilities will usually be in a 'common house', which can sometimes be used by the wider neighbourhood, e.g. playgroups, meetings, parties. Other shared facilities may include a market garden, work spaces, children's play area.
- Intentional neighbourhood design: the layout of the site will encourage social contact and a sense of neighbourhood. Usually cars are kept at the perimeter, and the layout will focus on pedestrian paths and open spaces. A cohousing 'cluster' is usually 10-30 households, 14-60 people, to create the sense of neighbourhood. Larger projects have been achieved by creating several clusters of this size.
- Participatory development process: Potential residents are actively involved from the early stages of design. This means that a sense of community is already formed before residents move in.
- Resident management: The operation and management of the overall site, and shared facilities, are overseen by the residents. The site freehold will be held in common ownership, with owner-occupiers and any social landlord as shareholders.
Cohousing
in the UK
There is rapidly-growing interest in cohousing, with many new groups forming, and many individuals keen to join a project. Cohousing is also starting to attract interest from policy makers and the media, recognising its potential.
The UK Cohousing Network runs a website which is a key resource: see www.cohousing.org.uk, and is seeking more support at a national level for new cohousing groups, e.g. from housing associations and Government.