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

[Jose Marquez (marchpower]

Maggi wrote:
> I concur.  I would prefer to be part of the design process than come in
> after the fact, *not* because I want to have more control over what my
> house/community looks like, but because the process seems to facilitate
> community-building, and I wouldn't want to miss out on it.

Exactly!

> However, if it is true that being part of the development process is an
> important aspect of cohousing... what are we going to do after lots and
> lots of cohousing communities are already in place?  We can't keep
> building new communities forever.  How can we support and encourage the
> same level of community bonding and trust for people who are moving into
> cohousing communities that are already built?

Here I see two things....(1) it's going to be a long, long time before the
need for new communities will end!  Also, moving into a community can be
easier because the community already exists and is an environment you can
gradually learn about (attending meetings) and joining a fully developed and
alive community is very very different from a bunch of strangers moving into
an already built community and having to start from scratch in a built
community.  I think that the process of building allows for enough
experience with each other to know before living together that you want to
actually live together.

If you marry a stranger it would likely be much harder to move into your new
home after the wedding (everything needs to be ironed out) than if you marry
a good friend/lover whom you already have many strong bonds with (only the
living together stuff needs to be dealt with since many other issues have
already been dealt with to your satisfaction or you wouldn't be married in
the first place!).

I'm glad for our building process!
March