Customer Reviews

Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves

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This book has everything: photos, diagrams, plans of action, references, and more. For the beginner, this book defines cohousing & makes it possible to visualize this type of community. For people who already know what cohousing is, this book gives you step-by-step information on how to make a cohousing community a reality.

How much action can one book trigger? I wonder how many of theprojects can be traced back to readers being inspired by thisbook.

Beautifully illustrated, well researched, the book conveys well the Aha erlebnis these architects must have experienced as they discovered these very liveable Danish communities.

For readers who like architecture and wonder what kind of housing community can deliver homeliness based on both privacy and community.

This book is the perfect place to begin considering if cohousing is for you. Beautifully illustrated it allows the reader to imagine themselves in cohousing. If your ready to make your project happen I recommend THE COHOUSING HANDBOOK by Chris Hanson.

This is an excellent book for the individual who would like to consider living in a community that isn't the typical, isolated neighborhood. Reading this book has really opened my eyes to so many of the benefits of cohousing. Originally I thought that it was like an old-fashioned commune but that's not it at all. Kathryn McCamnat, as well as her architect husband, Chuck Durrett, really know what they're talking about.

This is a must read book for anyone interested in being involved with co-housing. The book explains the history of this housing approach, shares experiences of both success and failure in establishing a co-housing community, and provides helpful guidance based on actual experience. Of note is the emphasis on community, and the experience that a successful co-housing community requires the resident's participation from the initial conception of the project. Based on my experiences with commercial real estate, I conclude that this aspect of co-housing (getting multiple people to work together as a community) is the most difficult aspect of a successful co-housing development. Far more difficult that the actual site selection, acquisition, planning and development of the physical facility.

COHOUSING: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves is about how people are starting to live like we did in the "old days" where whether or not you are single, or part of a large family, each person is important to the community. I believe the the USA will start to see a shift to this type of living because it's cheaper, more social, and you have a built-in "family" wherever you live.

This book speaks to communities beyond the "garage door-opener" type of community. These are places like "Cheers" the TV series, "Where everyone knows your name"

A fabulous book which shows the beauty of the european style intentional community, with many enticing photos. It makes me think that even though it is difficult or impossible to utilize the pragmatic wisdom of traditional socialism on a national scale in the United States due to the misinformation and prejudice which has saturated our culture, it may be possible, practical and quite enjoyable to do it in small, intentional communities. While American culture has become infected with a disingenuous and artificial form of individualism which is the result of fallacious theories of econimics based on the superstition of Natural Law that has done nothing but leave individuals alienated, as well as economically disadvantaged, there have been many great experiments throughout history which provide examples of how a few of us can attempt to get rid of this societal sickness. The community known as New Harmony, founded by the Rappites and purchased by socialist thinker Robert Owen is one such example which was known as the "Athens of the West". There has been a renewed interest in this kind of community since the 1960's and rather than these communities failing like so many other fads, on the contrary, many have succeeded and there are now more than ever. Our society is desperate for a practical answer to it's own lack of connection between people and absence of cultural and generational continuity, whether it, or the individuals living in it are consciously aware of this fact or willing to admit it to themselves. While this book doesn't talk about communities like New Harmony, what the people in this book are doing is very much in that spirit, and I believe it holds the answers to many problems that can be used here and now. What we need now is something which will give us independence from the growing trend of corporate neofeudalism which values profit and underpaying labor over family, friends, real education (not education for money) self-enjoyment, and any hope of meaningful individuality (as opposed to the meaningless ideas of individualism propounded by free-market theories and shallow pseudo-philosophical and political fads like objectivism and libertarianism). I sincerely hope that one day that I can participate in such a community.