What is Cohousing?

Hearthstone, an urban cohousing community in North Denver, CO, offers a nurturing environment in which to raise children. (Photo by Evangeline Welch)

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. Also see the widely quoted Six Defining Characteristics of Cohousing.

This is the single most frequently asked question of cohousing residents and professionals. Yes, each residence has a fully equipped, private kitchen. In addition, the common house almost always contains a kitchen, where community members regularly share a few meals each week.

Zev Paiss and Neshama Abraham of Abraham-Paiss & Associates are interviewed for a national TV show featuring their cohousing community, Nomad Cohousing in Boulder, CO.

New 2008 Census Data about Cohousing
A pdf of a 2008 census is available. Use the contact form linked above to request it.
Fact Sheet
Download a four-page pdf fact sheet about cohousing in the U.S.

National media contact
Neshama Abraham, 303-413-8066

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Some states, counties or municipalities require developers of multi-family housing to have a certain percentage of the new units meet a standard for “affordability.” People in cohousing usually welcome this, and often wish they could make even more than the required percentage affordable. Unfortunately, unless the developer can get public or private subsidies or grants, a community can build only a limited number of affordable units without significantly driving up everyone else’s costs.

People often ask me what I consider to be the biggest difference between American cohousing and Danish cohousing. As an architect, I think people are usually asking about architectural features. But there’s more to it than that. When I show Danish visitors American exercise rooms, they always wonder what the stationary bikes are. “You mean you pedal but you don’t go anywhere?”

There are a few physical differences, but what I think of most is how much more proactively the Danes work to assure that the community functions from a social point of view. I guess that’s the point – if you can make the social side work, then it’s easier to accomplish your other aspirations as well.

So, for example, in the Danish cohousing community that Katie and I lived in for six months, dinner was available seven nights a week in the common house, and each person cooks one night a month and assists another night a month. There is one cook and one assistant each night.

Affordability varies. Some cohousing neighborhoods now incorporate approaches to maximize affordability, but most often construction, consultants and financing costs are similar to those in any new development. Cohousing homes tend to be comparably priced with other single-family houses, townhouses or condominiums in the area. In addition to your new home, however, you also will benefit from a custom-designed neighborhood and extensive common facilities, as well as ongoing costs that tend to be less than in a typical U.S. home.

Replaced by the blog pages, same content.

Cohousing Magazine is pleased to inaugurate a new column. Architect Chuck Durrett who, along with his wife Katie McCamant, brought cohousing to the U.S. shares a few of his thoughts and impressions on that subject.

The majority of cohousing communities in the United States comprise 20 to 40 units, with others ranging from 7 to 67 homes. Many people feel that cohousing works best with 25 to 35 households. Different-sized groups enjoy specific advantages. For example, in a smaller community, you will know every person quite well if you choose to do so. A larger community usually has enough resources to support more extensive common facilities, and enough people to create a greater variety of community activities.

Neighbors at Temescal Creek Cohousing in Oakland, CA, celebrate their new common house. (Photo by Andrea Kissack)

Some people who wish to live in cohousing neighborhoods find creative ways to transform existing blocks of homes into what is commonly called “retrofit cohousing.”

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. Future residents participate in the design of the community so that it meets their needs. Some cohousing communities are initiated or driven by a developer. In those cases, if the developer brings the future resident group into the process late in the planning, the residents will have less input into the design. A well-designed, pedestrian-oriented community without significant resident participation in the planning may be “cohousing-inspired,” but it is not a cohousing community.

Some people involved with cohousing like to describe their communities as “intentional neighborhoods.” By contrast, “intentional communities” frequently connotes a shared religious, political, environmental or social ideology rather than simply the desire to have a strong sense of community with your neighbors. Cohousing residents privately own their homes and do not pool their incomes.

Cohousing is a form of intentional neighborhood in which residents actively participate in the design and operation of their own community. In cohousing, residents know their neighbors well and enjoy a strong sense of community that is typically absent in contemporary cities and suburbs.