Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Defining "the cohousing principle"

[Fred H. Olson (fholson]

>From the FAQ section: What is Cohousing? on the cohousing website
http://www.cohousing.org/whatis.html#whatis
Here is excerpt from one statement of what cohousing is
     
   The Main Characteristics of Cohousing 
   As delivered by Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett at the 3rd North
   American Cohousing Conference in Seattle, September, 1997
   
     1. Participatory Process.
     Resident participate in the planning and design of the development
     of the community so that it directly responds to their needs.
     (Developer initiated/driven projects are in no way a threat to
     this. In most cases, developer initiation may actually make it
     easier for more people to participate in the process. On the other
     hand, a well-designed, pedestrian-oriented community with no
     resident involvement in the planning might be "cohousing inspired",
     but is not a cohousing community.)
     
     2. Neighborhood Design.
        ...   
     3. Private homes supplemented by common facilities.
        ...
     4. Resident management.
        ...
     5. Non-hierarchical structure and decision-making.
        ...
     6. The community is not a primary income source for residents.
        ...
--------------------------------------

A comment on another specific from Fred.

Anthony Cooke <anthony [at] cooke.co.nz>
suggested what cohousing is about includes
>    g.. private ownership of one's house.

While most often houses in cohousing have been owner occupied,
some cohousing includes rental and cooperatively owned units.

Fred

--
Fred H. Olson  fholson [at] cohousing.org    Minneapolis,MN   55411
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