Article on Cohousing and Sustainability | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: MWorswick (MWorswick![]() |
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Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 17:14:39 -0500 |
Daniel Krause from The CoHousing Company wrote that he was looking for some examples of how living in a coho community has enabled people to live more sustainably, including topics such as how the group process encourages sustainable practices, site selection, site planning, sharing & reduced consumption and architectural and technological environmental features. Fred Olson asked if those who have developed such information could share it with the list.... Matt Worswick of Synergy Design responding - Quite a bit has been done, and written about, on this subject over the years. My own work as the designer of three different cohousing communities has involved a substantial emphasis on energy efficient and sustainable design strategies. Working with Jim Leach of Wonderland Development, we have made these features a cornerstone of the concept that cohousing can be a more environmentally appropriate way to build. We have compiled documentation on some of the results in several reports & presentations over the years. The first extensive report, co-authored with Zev Paiss in 1993, was about the specific strategies used at the Nyland Community in LaFayette, CO. The documentation and analysis were sponsored by grants from the EPA & State Energy Office. The Nyland residents were pioneers in creating what was called at the time "the most energy efficient community in Colorado". It's 20 pages long, without appendices. A condensed version of the Nyland results was published in Solar Today ( a publication of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory ) in 1994. More recently, Jim Leach & I presented papers at the national conference of Energy Efficient Builders last fall in Denver. Mine was a case study of my most recent Cohousing project and home-sweet-home , Harmony Village. Jim's was a broader overview of multiple projects. Both reports elaborated on what I call the "social sustainability" aspects of cohousing as well as the sustainable features of the physical infrastructure. I believe both of these are in electronic format that can be attached to e-mail. I'm sending a copy along to Daniel at the Cohousing Company. If anyone on the list would like a copy, please e-mail me directly at MWorswick [at] aol.com You can contact Jim Leach for a copy of his paper at : jwleach [at] ibm.net My personal hope is that cohousing will continue to be on the forefront of sustainable building practices and lifestyles. To all the rest of you out there striving for the same thing - more power to you !!!! Matt Worswick Resident of Harmony Village - 27 southwestern style units completed in May of 1997 in Golden Colorado, where it's supposed to hit 90 degrees today. So I'm particularly happy to be tucked in the shade of one of the huge cottonwood trees that we carefully preserved on our site. Owner of Synergy Design - specialist in energy efficient and sustainable homes and communities. (303) 278-1880
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