Cohousing-L Mailing List: defining the cohousing principle

[Tara Ingram (ingramta]

Here's an example similar to what you describe in Davis, CA.

http://www.cohousing.org/Groups/n_street/



> From: Berrins [at] aol.com
> Reply-To: Berrins [at] aol.com
> Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 07:56:48 -0500
> To: Multiple recipients of list <cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org>
> Subject: Re: defining the cohousing principle
> 
> Perhaps one way (of many possible) to redefine the "cohousing principle" is
> to place less emphasis on the physical structures and layout of the
> community. 
> 
> At present, cohousing is costly because of how it's built.  Either you buy
> undeveloped land and develop it or retrofit existing buildings and the
> surrounding lots to get as close to the ideal physical set-up as possible.
> Several general physical concepts predominate; perimeter parking with no
> driveways or roads between houses, a Common House with several specific
> function rooms, preservation of open land, clustered houses that face each
> other, and a bunch more.
> 
> All of these cost cash money.  Unless you can find a funding source to GIVE
> you money (and kudos to those who've succeeded), the community members have
> to fork it up.  Once you've got the land to develop or the buildings to
> retrofit, you can either build or retrofit as cheaply as possible, let
> everyone build their own house, or go for some middle road, which is what
> most folks do.  For the purpose of this discussion, let's stick with building
> cheaply.
> 
> To build (or retrofit) cheaply, you have to either buy cheap materials, build
> simply or retrofit as little as possible, supply as much labor as you can, or
> all three.  This will still be too expensive for some folks, either in time
> or money or both.  So, for folks who don't have enough time or money to do
> any of the above, how can we make cohousing affordable?
> 
> One answer, as suggested above, is to eliminate building from scratch or
> retrofitting altogether.   Find a pre-existing neighborhood, have members
> move into the as soon as a house or apartment becomes available and work
> towards eventually having some kind of common space or house.  You don't even
> have to own anything.
> 
> Then consider all the non-physical ideals of cohousing and do what you can to
> organize and live them.  Share meals, share tools, machinery and expertise,
> watch each others kids, have games nights, meetings where you plan events,
> and so on.  Tear down the fences and set up the connecting backyards for
> community life.  Sharing stuff will save folks money, and community
> fundraisers can get a bit of extra cash.  You may not have the physical
> ideal, but you will have a community.
> 
> Roger Berman
> Pathways
> Northampton, MA
> 
> This, by the way, is the only way I can think of to pass cohousing ideals to
> most of the rest of the world.