We see cohousing as a way of living co-operatively as well as independently. We plan for each person to have her own self-contained flat in a block with shared communal facilities where we can meet together when we wish and have meals together when we want. Our cohousing community will be in High Barnet, north London.
We want to build a ‘living group’ where we will promote our own health and well-being through self-reliance, co-operation, companionship and mutual support. Our community will be actively managed by us, its residents. We want to create an environment where diversity is welcomed and everyone is valued equally regardless of class, ethnic background, belief, disability or sexual orientation. We will be a community where we value, share and develop each others’ skills and talents.
Cohousing
Cohousing is a form of grouped housing set up and run by the people who live in it. It combines private self-contained accommodation with common space. The idea is that you ‘grow the community’ first, rather than put up a building and hope those who live in it will then get to know each other. For all cohousing groups, the time that it takes to build the group, agree its common aims, find a site and contribute to the design of their homes is the time in which the people involved get to know each other and test out whether they want to live with other people in this way.
The process can also help them to work well together and to share responsibility in advance of actually living as a group. They manage their residential scheme co-operatively, take decisions together and welcome new members who are willing to share in the life of the group and contribute to it. Having a waiting pool of would-be residents who also come and take part regularly in the group’s life is a way of keeping the group true to its original co-operative spirit.
The cohousing community is essentially a way of promoting neighbourly relations in a small housing complex where people share activities and offer each other a helping hand when needed. Cohousing is ideal for people who are growing older, who may want to down-size and who want to continue to live a full life in a mini-neighbourhood where they know people. Not everyone wants to live in sheltered housing – and we are definitely not sheltered housing!
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