Cohousing is a very old, very traditional way of living that, regrettably, we have almost lost in modern America. But the values of community, and of knowing your neighbors, are apparent to those who embrace cohousing – which is just a name for the concept of living in a close, friendly and sharing neighborhood.

These small-scale neighborhoods blend private home ownership with shared common resources. In this way, cohousing reinvents and reinterprets “The Village Green” for 21st century communities.

In cohousing communities, private self-sufficient homes are clustered around a “common house” with shared facilities such as a playroom for children, workshops, guest rooms, sitting areas and a dining area. Future residents design and develop their own community and are then responsible for its ongoing management. Having major participation from conception to birth, a cohousing community is a community long before the first key turns in the door.

A central feature of creating community in cohousing is “breaking bread” together. Generally, dinners cooked by the residents are available in the common house for those who wish to eat together. Depending on the community, once or twice a month residents volunteer to cook dinner or clean up. For all other evenings, when you get home from work you can socialize, play with your children or just relax.

In an era where “neighbor knowing neighbor” is the chief deterrent to crime, cohousing above all else, is a safe place for adults and children to live and grow.

In addition to the obvious social advantages of living near friends, residents have more free time because many of the routine activities of life can be shared such as dinners, gardens and yard work. Expensive and/or rarely used tools and recreational equipment purchased by the group is available to all. Car-pooling is easier to arrange.

Cohousing was pioneered in Denmark in 1972. There are currently more than 100 thriving cohousing communities in Europe. Closer to home, in the U.S. and Canada, there are 33 built communities, 23 are under construction and 24 have a site. 
Click here to see other cohousing communities.

There are four distinguishing characteristics of cohousing:
• Residents participate in the planning and design of their community.
• The physical design encourages incidental, frequent contact with community members thereby increasing a sense of community.
• There are extensive shared facilities most notably the “Common House” which is designed for daily use and supplements private living areas.
• Residents take complete responsibility for organizing and managing the community.

One remarkable feature of cohousing communities is the “Purposeful Separation of the Car” (Chris Hanson in The Cohousing Handbook). In cohousing communities, cars are parked on the periphery of the community leaving the interior streets for people. Kids in cohousing can play in the street all day long.

Cohousing communities are strongly cooperative in nature. Often, consensus decision-making is the norm.

Cohousing communities are designed so that they will give parents, children, single adults and elders more opportunities for social contact and support, while fully-equipped private dwellings will guarantee all the privacy residents may desire. Cohousing is the lifestyle of choice for people who want this new kind of balance between personal privacy and community.

For detailed information about CoHousing, visit this website of Kathryn McCamant & Charles Durrett, authors of the book: “CoHousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves”.

We are located in St. Louis, MO.  The house and the buildings that are being developed are near Saint Louis University in the Central West End neighborhood, bordering on Midtown.

There are many attractions within walking distance.  Here are some of them:

• Powell Hall
• The Fabulous Fox Theatre
• The Sheldon Concert Hall
• The Moolah Shrine Theater and Bowling Alley

If you are interested in joining us, here are a few ways that you might want to get involved:

• Join our discussion forums
• Come to a monthly open house
• Rent a room in our current ecohouse
• Subscribe to our blog to get RSS updates on our project
• Volunteer to help us