A Cohousing community is a kind of intentional community composed of private homes with full kitchens, supplemented by extensive common facilities. A cohousing community is planned, owned and managed by the residents, groups of people who want more interaction with their neighbours. Common facilities vary but usually include a large kitchen and dining room where residents can take turns cooking for the community. Other facilities may include a laundry, child care facilities, offices, game room, tv room, tool room, and a gym. Through spatial design and shared social and management activities, cohousing facilitates interaction among neighbours, for the social and practical benefits. There are also economic and environmental benefits to sharing resources, space and items.

Because each cohousing community is planned in its context, a key feature of this model is its flexibility to the needs and values of its residents and the characteristics of the site. Cohousing can be urban, suburban or rural. The physical form is typically compact but varies from low-rise apartment s to townhouses to clustered detached house s. They tend to keep cars to the periphery which promotes walking through the community and interacting with neighbors as well as increasing safety for children at play within the community. Shared green space is another characteristic, whether for gardening, play, or places to gather.

There are over 65 operating communities in North America with about 200 others in the planning phases. There are also communities in Australia, the UK and other parts of the world.

Cohousing differs from some types of intentional communities in that the residents do not have a shared economy or have a common set of beliefs or religion. Models of consensus democracy are usually involved in managing co-housing. Individuals do take on leadership roles, such as being responsible for coordinating a garden or facilitating a meeting.

Legal ownership in a cohousing community uses existing legal forms of real estate ownership that may include individually titled houses with common areas owned by a homeowner association, condominiums or a housing co-operative however cohousing differs because of the emphasis on the social relationships among its residents.

The modern theory of cohousing originated in Denmark in the 1960s among groups of families who were dissatisfied with existing housing and communities that they felt did not meet their needs. It was introduced to North America by two American architects, Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett , who visited several cohousing communities and wrote a book about it, . Several cohousing communities exist in Denmark and other countries in northern Europe, on the west coast of the U.S.A, especially California and in British Columbia, Canada.

External links

• http://www.cohousing.org
• http://www.cohousing.ca
• http://www.cohousing.co.uk
• http://www.cohouses.net
• http://www.samenhuizen.be (Dutch language)