By Diana Leafe Christian On August 1st, Fostermamas: “As potential co-housing members we’re constantly refining what factors are important in our cohousing search. Each visit to a potential community has given us more insight into what we’re looking for in our ideal community. “After visiting our first cohousing community we decided that our multiracial family… Read More
The best size and number of households seems to be one of the big challenges facing cohousing in America. Cohousing communities in Europe have shown over and again that the optimum size is not too big and not too small. Create a community that is too big and an institutional feel and sensibility will result…. Read More
By Diana Leafe Christian Friday night (7/25), I gave a talk at the “Community Seeker’s Fair” which kicked off the NICA Gathering here in Portland (described below). I talked about characteristics of people who tend to do well in community: confidence and assertiveness, humility (they’re not mutually exclusive), a willingness to pitch in and work,… Read More
By Diana Leafe Christian Right now I’m at the NICA Annual Sumner Gathering in Portland, Oregon. NICA, the Northwest Intentional Communities Association, is the largest regional communities network in the US. It’s members are cohousers and members of non-cohousing communities in Washington and Oregon. The Gathering is hosted this year by Columbia Ecovillage. The founders… Read More
Diana Leafe Christian “That’s not the community I’d ever live in!”The man in the back of the room was upset, and walked out. We were just 45 minutes into my workshop-consultation for his cohousing community. Clearly, what I’d said so far had upset him. The six-year-old community had called me in as a consultant because… Read More
By Diana Leafe Christian This blog entry is in response to Craig’s Forum comment on June 4th in the “Researching Your Community” Forum about “Do-ers” and “Be-ers” in cohousing. I think most cohousers are good-hearted, compassionate people. And I have a working hypothesis that cohousers (and people in intentional communities in general) apply compassion in… Read More
The temptation to use technology to make life more convenient, more practical, or just jazzier – whatever the cost – is always with us. In our Nevada City cohousing community, we adopted online signups for common dinners. Previously, signups were on paper in the common house. I’d often stop by the common house at around… Read More
by Diana Leafe Christian Match what you want with what’s available. • You may only want to join a cohousing community if one already exists in your area. This limits your options of course, but saves you time and money ultimately, since it’s relatively easy to move across town. • You may be open to… Read More
People often ask me what I consider to be the biggest difference between American cohousing and Danish cohousing. As an architect, I think people are usually asking about architectural features. But there’s more to it than that. When I show Danish visitors American exercise rooms, they always wonder what the stationary bikes are. “You mean… Read More
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