Retrofit Cohousing

Cohousing Topics

Below are all of the blog entries, articles, and descriptions of past and future events on our website related to Retrofit Cohousing. Can't find something? Let us know

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Building an urban village: Retrofit Cohousing

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by Fred H. Olson

Most cohousing communities in the U.S. are newly built neighborhoods with the homes arrayed along a pedestrian street or clustered around a courtyard, in close proximity to the community’s common house. But new construction is expensive and building sites in urban areas are few, so some people are finding ways to adapt existing blocks of housing and to change usage patterns to develop what is commonly called “retrofit cohousing.”

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Retrofit cohousing: A different kind of fixer-upper

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by Karen Hester, Temescal Creek Cohousing

In March 1999, after only three months of meetings, a group of five families opened escrow on Temescal Creek Cohousing, a "retrofit" cohousing neighborhood in Oakland, CA. They're called a retrofit community because they transformed an existing neighborhood into a cohousing community, rather than building from the ground up.

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What is retrofit cohousing?

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Neighbors at Temescal Creek Cohousing in Oakland, CA, celebrate their new common house. (Photo by Andrea Kissack)

Some people who wish to live in cohousing neighborhoods find creative ways to transform existing blocks of homes into what is commonly called “retrofit cohousing.”

Particularly in urban areas, where new construction is expensive and building sites are few, retrofit cohousing offers an alternative to typical cohousing communities in the U.S., which are built from the ground up.