WHAT WE'RE READING: The rise of co-housing

 

Co-housing Hoogvliet by van Bergen Kolpa Architecten

In February, residents of Lilac (the Low Impact Living Affordable Community) moved into their homes in Bramley, Leeds. Lilac is a group of 20 new homes considered part of a growing typology in the UK and across northern Europe called co-housing. This is a type of ‘intentional community‘ consisting of private homes supplemented by shared facilities, often including a kitchen, dining room, laundry, childcare facilities, offices, internet access, guest rooms, and recreational features. Communities are planned, owned and managed by the residents – who share activities such as cooking, dining, child care, gardening and governance. Distinct from communal housing, this type of housing began in the 1980s in the UK with Thundercliffe Grange in Rotherham. There are now 14 built co-housing communities. A further 40+ groups are developing projects, including Baltic Wharf in Totnes, Devon. And often, this housing type is bought into in different ways to normal private housing. To read about the different realities of co-housing communities, see: Co-housing: a lifestyle with community spirit built into the foundations. One of the most promising areas of co-housing development in the UK, however, is as alternative housing for people in advancing years of life. John Killock, a recent architecture graduate of the University of Westminster, has just started a blog for the Huffington Post about his travels around Europe in search of co-housing solutions to homes for the elderly, Architecture and the Effects of Human Ageing.

UPDATE

The Financial Times subsequently published an article on the subject of co-housing, suggesting that co-housing is an option middle class families are investigating as a more affordable and communal housing solution.

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