Cohousing model a different way of understanding life

Table Of Contents

What is cohousing?

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What is cohousing?

It is about a different lifestyle, or rather, reminiscent of village life, that solidarity, respect and community experience. The philosophy is SHARING.

The concept of collaborative residential model It was born in Denmark between the years 60-70 with subsequent implantation in the United States and progressively in different countries, with a very notable acceptance in a society that prioritizes individualism.

Formed by a group of private houses where common services are highlighted and implemented in great consideration. Raised and managed by its own owners who are the ones who decide the type of home to live in, which allows them to define their needs from the initial Project.

Residential Complex = More Super. Community and less private sup.

Cohousing is a possible sustainable and efficient model in the face of the individualism of society.

The following video graphically explains very clearly the cohousing concept…

But, what difference is there between a cohousing model and traditional private housing….

Differences between the cohousing model and private housing

Although it is possible to investigate a lot in this matter and raise many doubts, to a large extent, the comparison between cohousing and the private housing model traditional would be:

Co-housing	Private property
Focused on the community	Focused on the individual space
Reduction of living space	Individual homes are larger
Community shared costs	Private costs
Focused model generated less environmental impact	Designs don't necessarily think about the environment
The space is a good of access to the whole community (Less in part private housing)	Common spaces are useless for social life
Security systems provided by the community members themselves	Individualized security systems
Has characteristics of a condominium (A "club" style)	It is a purely private good
It is designed to generate participation among users	In most cases, participation is not a priority
It is designed with elements to guarantee people's health	Health depends on each individual or family
Community resources are shared; dining room, laundry, more common areas, enjoyment room, meetings, etc.	Community resources are very limited

How is ownership considered in cohousing?

The most common is the cooperative with concession of use, in which the cooperative is the owner and the people have the right of indefinite use. It is a right that can be transmitted by inheritance and can be sold through the cooperative. This facilitates the possibility of changing from one cohousing to another depending on the vital needs at each stage of life.

I know prioritizes coexistence and cooperation between residents, as well as the centralization of equipment and services, which ends up providing social benefits, improvements in energy, economic and environmental efficiency. Based on the following characteristics:

Facilities are considered communal, as an extension of the home (supplement private living areas) and for daily use.
Housing as a unit and individual economies. They are not communes.
Self-managed by the residents of the complex themselves, who organize regular community activities (usually meals).
Equity. There is no hierarchical structure, everyone has the same rights.
Participatory process in design and construction by residents throughout the development process.
Intentional design for social contact. With practical social objectives: in the community itself, in the
neighborhood…

Who is it for?

The cohousing projects They are for everyone, although its beginnings were directed towards the elderly and their problems in the face of increasing isolation by modern society.

We remember that needs of the elderly are mainly people's needs (regardless of age), starting, as Maslow (1976) structured:

The initial idea was to act mainly on the society of the "third age". But there are already a great variety of consumers who advocate living in community, want to break the current stimuli of individualism and promote community relations. And above all, Improve Life Quality…

Types of cohousing

Over the years, while the model has evolved, more classes of cohousing have appeared, differentiated mainly by their form of administration and how they relate to individuals. An example of types of cohousing models most representative:

Model	Resident-led model	Association model	Speculative model
Model description	Total dedication to all administrative and community tasks, led by the community itself.	In the partnership model, both developers and residents work together.	In this model, only the developers take care of all the processes.
Community vision	All residents involved.	All residents involved.	Developers.
Hiring	All residents involved.	All residents involved with professional help.	Developers.
Legal structures and financing	All residents involved with professional help.	led by developer (s).	Developers.
Design processes	All residents involved with professional help.	Led by the developer with income from residents.	Developers.
Community development	All residents involved with professional help, before and during the community housing process.	All residents involved with professional help, before and during the community housing process.	Led by residents, once they begin to live in community.

Based on the different administrations and the lifestyle that is intended to be followed, the architecture raised several options. For example, a approach to cohousing developments:

We must not forget that community relations They make us feel more "human" and that the future is envisaged with relatively affordable homes to buy or rent, but with high maintenance costs. This type of construction directly affects the reduction of maintenance outlay.

There is a document that I find interesting - it is short to read - and they are Reflections from the questions raised by a user about the place of the cohousing model in an individualistic society, both from the social, economic and consumer aspects, also related with his experience of the failure of the common space in the housing of communist Germany.Access from HERE.

To learn more from the website Ecohousing.es where you can consult all the necessary information as well as projects. Also from the following two documents that I think are useful:

Collaborative residential model and enabling for a happy aging consult from HERE.
Alternative Residential Final Degree Project for Active Aging Consult HERE.
Diagnosis of Cohousing model check from HERE.

As we are seeing the interest that this post is generating. I am going to add some interesting comments that you communicate to us or parallel projects.

From Valencia:

In Valencia, this concept has existed for centuries in rural areas and is known as “tornallom”. The villagers helped each other by exchanging favors: one helped another with the potatoes and the next day the latter helped the first with the tomatoes :)

From Uruguay:

There are experiences of this type since the 60s of the last century. From the creation of the Movement for the Eradication of Rural Unsanitary Housing (MEVIR) In 1967 and the Housing Law of 1968, a door was opened for these types of experiences to begin, under different forms of management and ownership. The most interesting experiences have been developed by housing cooperatives, particularly those of self-construction, grouped in the Uruguayan Federation of Mutual Aid Housing Cooperatives (FUCVAM). In cooperatives, the property regime is common, not only of green spaces and community services, but of the homes themselves, the occupants being users of them, members of the cooperative that owns them. There are various technical support organizations for these experiences, perhaps the most important is the Uruguayan Cooperative Center (CCU), and they have worked on these important professional experiences (I remember, for example, Arch. Miguel Cecilio). For more information you can enter:

www.fucvam.org.uy
www.ccu.org.uy
http://www.housingcoopvivienda.org/ It is the page of a group of houses made by 5 united cooperatives. It is a large complex of 420 homes, built in the 70s. At that time, 4 or 5 groups of this type were built, along with other smaller ones. There was a great shortage of housing and large state housing complexes and also of this type, smaller but also large, were built by cooperatives. Then the actions were reviewed and the realization of smaller complexes was preferred, which in general do not exceed 50 homes

Points of interest: