Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Danish cohousing organizations?

[Nitsan Vardi (eminv]

Stuart and Zev,
Sorry for taking so long to answer - and for giving you a very short 
answer now.

I am not very knowledgeable - my contact with Danish cohousing is only 8 
years old.  So take whatever I tell you with caution. I grew up in a 
kibbutz in Israel - and see a lot of things from a different point of 
viewthan many Danish cohousers. But here I will try to tell you what I know.

The first cohousing group organized in the late 60'ies after reading a 
magazine article: "Children Should Have a 100 Parents". calling for 
alternatives to the hedged-in-single-family-house.
In '72 they founded Saettedammen, and a short time after that another part 
of the group founded a sister community 20 km away. 

>From then on, the word spread to friends, colleagues, relatives and 
neighbours. I heard about Saettedammen in 1985 because we lived in the 
neighborhood, and one of their kids met our son in a playground. 

There were no nationwide, coordinated efforts to promote cohousing, and 
there is no book; the newsletter is small, scarce, and is mainly read by 
existing cohousing communities.

There was publicity - though not very organized. Magazine and newspaper
articles, TV programs. (I even have an article from a 1973 issue of "Bo
Bedre" - "Better Homes" about Saettedammen as The House of The Month...). 
And then, Danmark is a small country. A lot of people know someone who
lives in a cohousing community. 

Government aid - there is a program of financial aid to a certain form of 
common ownership, but it is not specifically directed towards cohousing 
communities, and far from all communities use it.

If I come by an article of general interest that covers cohousing 
development in Denmark I'll get it onto the list. I am afraid that there 
are not so many of them.

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note: new e-mail address!
                                                ___ __
Nitsan Vardi                                  \   \   \ \   \   \/  \  \
Saettedammen, Denmark                              \   \ \   \  _\    __\
e-mail: eminv [at] unidhp.uni-c.dk                                 \