User:UrbanCommonsNerd/sandbox

Cohousing
Cohousing is a social-spatial approach to housing. There is a small but growing movement internationally and an emergent movement in the Australian context.

The key ingredients are:

 * A desire to live in a community where you know your neighbours and have spaces and processes to facilitate organisation and collaboration.
 * Cohousing projects are community-led: initiate by a collective of residents, co-designed by the future residents, prosocial and collaboratively governed ongoing.
 * Individual / private household dwellings, co-located in a pedestrianised context, with passive visual connectivity and opportunities for spontaneous and incidental interaction.
 * Shared spaces: private dwellings are augmented through access to shared spaces. This avoids unnecessary duplication of amenities that are not required daily or that can be easily shared. This often includes; laundry, guestrooms/spare room, workshop, garden storage, hobby spaces, productive gardens.
 * Commonhouse: the cathedral of community. A space that can accommodate the entire resident community. Includes a kitchen and dinning space at a minimum and is often multifunctional to accommodate a range of community activities.
 * Typically they have a key focus or collective aspiration for how to live. This can be as simple as knowing your neighbours, it can include the cultivation of community solidarity and support, pro-environment design, resource efficiencies and sharing, and collaborative practices to reduce lifestyle impacts. These are often things not supported in the ordinary housing market or within the contractualised governance (owners corporation) and so people are seeking to develop projects that address these deficiencies.

Find out more at: CoHousing Australia - cohousingaustralia.au

Existing Communities
There are several existing projects and many forming groups. The list below are of projects that are already occupied* or under development**.

Victoria

 * Murundaka*
 * Urban Coup*
 * Brougham St**

Tasmania

 * Cascade Cohousing*
 * Cohousing Cooperative*
 * Tasman Ecovillage*

South Australia

 * Christie's Walk*

Western Australia

 * DeCohousing*