2009 Featured Architects

On June 24-28, 2009, our Annual National Cohousing Conference will feature a number of Top Cohousing Architects - some very well-known, established green architects with many built sustainable communities - and some whose emerging practices are generating new ways of looking at Cohousing and green architecture. We are also sharing the work of some architecture graduate students who are addressing the challenges of cohousing design for their very first time.

Those who attend the 2009 conference have the opportunity to enjoy and learn with...

Bryan Bowen

Conference Session: Renewable Energy at Achievable Scale and Cost, included in Conference
Pre-Conference 3 hr Workshop: Designing super eco-cohousing, start to finish, $60
Bryan Bowen Architects, PC is a multidisciplinary design collaborative that explores how we may live more lightly upon our earth in beautiful and healthy environments. In addition to a focus on green cohousing, the practice includes passive solar single-family homes, eco-retrofits (making existing buildings green), multifamily housing, mixed-use projects, and commercial work.

Charles Durrett

Conference Session: The Top Ten Impediments to Cohousing – and How to Get Around Them, included in Conference
Pre-Conference 2-day Workshop: Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living, $195
Charles Durrett, noted architect and author, introduced the concept of cohousing to the U.S. from its success in Denmark. Cohousing offers new architectural and social models of housing designed for families seeking a balance of independence and sociability, community and privacy. As a leader in sustainable, green design, Durrett designs projects that are space-efficient, easy to maintain, and cost-effective. His firm’s primary concern is people, their environment, and the quality of their lives. His socially relevant projects have won numerous awards, including the Human Habitat Award by the United Nations, and his work has received considerable national recognition. He is also the author of the groundbreaking book, Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living – The Handbook (TenSpeed Press).

Laura Fitch

Conference Session: Endless Meetings or Efficiency in design decision making – the Workshop Approach, included in Conference
Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: The Right Site, $60
Laura Fitch is a principal with Kraus-Fitch Architects, Inc. in Amherst, Massachusetts and a 15-year resident of Pioneer Valley Cohousing. Kraus-Fitch Architects has worked on programming, schematic design, and/or full services on over two dozen cohousing communities across the US.

Grace Kim

Conference Session: Three’s Company : A Collaborative Effort Between Owner, Architect and Contractor, included in Conference
Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: Cohousing 101, $20
Grace Kim is an architect and co-founding principal of Schemata Workshop, a 5-person architectural collaborative in Seattle. She attended architecture school at Washington State University and received a post-professional Masters in Architecture from University of Washington, where she also received a grant to live in Copenhagen and research Danish cohousing – specifically Common House design. She has visited over 20 communities in Denmark and more than 20 in North America. She is actively involved with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Congress of Residential Architects. In 2004 she was the first recipient of the national AIA Emerging Professionals Mentorship Award and in 2008 she was received the national AIA Young Architects Award. Grace is also the author of The Survival Guide to Architectural Internship and Career Development and the architect for Daybreak Cohousing which is under construction in Portland, OR.

Kathryn McCamant

Conference Session: Working with Consultants Effectively, included in Conference
Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: Project Management Best Practices, $60
Pre-Conference 1-day Workshop: Getting it Built, $95
A licensed architect and co-author of the book Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, Kathryn McCamant founded McCamant & Durrett Architects and The CoHousing Company with her husband, Charles Durrett in 1987. The firm, with offices in Berkeley and Nevada City, California, specializes in sustainable design, cohousing, affordable housing, urban planning, and childcare facilities.In 2006, she founded CoHousing Partners with Jim Leach, a cohousing development company, of which she is now president. CP is currently working on projects in Fresno and Grass Valley, CA. She sat on the CohoUS Board for six years from its initial founding. Kathryn lives with her husband and teenage daughter in the Nevada City Cohousing Community. They previously lived at Doyle Street Cohousing in Emeryville, California for 12 years.

University of Washington Architecture Students

Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: Incorporating Affordable Units into Urban Cohousing, FREE
University of Washington Architecture Graduate students studied 3 urban sites in Seattle for hypothetical cohousing projects. They worked with a “client group” that included cohousing residents and a non-profit affordable housing developer.

A number of the cohousing architects enjoy a get together at a recent National Cohousing Conference