Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Why not?

[Jim Ratliff (jratliff]

On  4:10 PM 11/12/93 -0600, Trey Wedge wrote:
 
>     My <naive> impression was that the attraction of co-housing is
>     economy...

[...]

>     So, if there is no economy in this approach, again, why do it?

[...]

>     For that matter, what are the advantages of cohousing that are
>     unavailable in conventional housing? 

Conventional housing is not designed to foster community, rather it's
designed to foster a "my home is my castle--stay out of my space" attitude.

Cohousing intentionally creates spatial/temporal patterns which facilitate
interaction among community members. Compare that to typical suburban life
where people drive home from work, activate the remote control for their
automatic-opening garage door, drive in (with the door shutting behind
them), and then entering their house without seeing their neighbors.

Sharing meals is a SIGNIFICANT difference between cohousing and any
conventional neighborhood.

  ___
   |
 \_|IM RATLIFF
Tucson Cohousing
jratliff [at] bpa.Arizona.edu