Tag Archives: Cohousing

The Cohousing Handbook: Building a Place for Community

The Cohousing Handbook: Building a Place for Community

The Cohousing Handbook: Building a Place for CommunityAuthor(s): Chris Hanson

Publisher: Hartley & Marks

Paperback: 278 pages

ISBN: 0881791261

ISBN-13: 978-0881791266

Order From: Amazon.com
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Cohousing offers an end to the isolation of the single-family suburban home. Balancing community and personal privacy, cohousing is a chance to create a modern village in an urban or rural setting. Residents own their own homes and can gather in common areas to share meals and socialize. An increasingly popular form of housing in both Europe and North America, cohousing addresses and alleviates many of the demands and pressures of modern life-everything from day care to aging at home is easier with the help of your neighbors.

As pioneers in the development of cohousing in North America, Chris and Kelly ScottHanson offer individuals and new groups a wealth of information and practical hints on how the process works. The Cohousing Handbook covers every element that goes into the creation of a cohousing project, including group processes, land acquisition, finance and budgets, construction, development professionals, design considerations, permits, approvals and membership. This revised and updated edition includes an expanded marketing chapter, as well as a foreword by Gifford Pinchot.

A source of comfort and inspiration for those who want to create their ideal community, The Cohousing Handbook is a groundbreaking and practical guide to building a better society one neighborhood at a time-a must-have for the growing number of people who want to create a cohousing community.

Chris and Kelly ScottHanson are acknowledged leaders in the development of cohousing, and are co-owners of Cohousing Resources, LLC. Chris is also president and CEO of Seattle-based Construction & Development Services, Inc., responsible for overseeing numerous cohousing projects from land acquisition through construction throughout North America. Kelly is CEO of Eco-Development, LLC, providing marketing, startup guidance and membership advice for numerous cohousing and ecovillage projects. They both live and work on Bainbridge Island, Washington.

Table of Contents

Foreword By Zev Paiss
1. Introduction
2. Forming a Group
3. The Development Process
4. Working with Professionals
5. Buying Land
6. The Design Process
7. Design Considerations
8. Environment
9. Legal Issues
10. Finance and Budget
11. Marketing and Membership
12. Scheduling and Planning
13. Permits and Approvals
14. The Construction Process
15. Moving In
16. Resources
About the Author
Index

Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves

Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves

Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing OurselvesAuthor(s): Kathryn McCamant, Charles Durrett, Ellen Hertzman

Publisher: Ten Speed Press

Paperback: 288 pages

ISBN: 0898155398

ISBN-13: 978-0898155396

Order From: Amazon.com
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How-To Editor’s Recommended Book, 02/01/97:

Alright, you tried living in a commune in the 1970s, and people kept borrowing your toothbrush and leaving dishes in the sink. Then you set up house by yourself and felt lonely. You got married, started raising a family and ended up feeling isolated from your friends and the rest of the community. You go to work, wave to your neighbors over the fence now and then, and think there must be more to life than this. There is: a whole new concept of building a neighborhood and sense of community. This is the story of how and why cohousing works, and how to go about making it happen for yourself.

From The WomanSource Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women; review by Ilene Rosoff , 02/01/97:
Does the idea of not having to cook meals for yourself or family every night, deal with traffic on your block, or worry when your children are out playing in the neighborhood appeal to you? If the answer is yes, you may want to consider exploring cohousing, a concept that originated in Denmark in the early 1970s and has spread throughout Europe. In Cohousing, a number of European cohousing communities are profiled. Although each community is a unique reflection of its members’ tastes and desires, there are some common components, such as parking lots on the perimeters of the community for pedestrian safety, a common house where meals can be shared, and recreational facilities housing various community activities and services. With all the responsibilities entailed in managing a home and/or a family, cohousing is a solution for finding sufficient time to relax and spend with the people who are important to us. (The authors have recently started The Cohousing Company, a design and development company formed specifically to assist groups interested in planning and implementing cohousing in this country.)

Excerpted from Cohousing by Kathryn McCamant, et al (as appears in The WomanSource Catalog & Review). Copyright(c) 1993. Reprinted by permission, all rights reserved :
The dining room is located in the common house at the end of the hall. Here dinner is served four to six times a week, with 50 to 60 percent of the residents (25 to 35 people) typically taking part. The use of tokens, earned by cooking, assures that people prepare dinner in proportion to the number of times they eat. Each month residents sign up for when they will cook; and a few days beforehand, for when they will be there for dinner. This flexible system allows residents to participate as much or as little as they like.