Cohousing - the Sustainable / Affordable Question

The cohousing literature suggests that European and US cohousing communities have a better quality of life due to a heightened sense of well-being and a more affordable lifestyle (Marcus & Dovey, 1991; Meltzer, 2000; Brenton, 1998; Fromm, 1991).

For Sydney Cohousing, sustainability and affordability are imperative for establishing a successful community. We have had many discussions about the meaning of sustainability and affordability, how far are we willing to go in order to achieve it? Are we willing to drop some important environmentally sustainable feature (principles) in favour of economical or social sustainability for us to build our “dream” homes? And how vital will it be for us to adapt to or change the way we live or at least the way we dwell, to be able to have a better quality of life?

Sustainability is defined as "forms of progress that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs."

Let’s look at it this way; putting aside our care for and responsibility to our global environment and focusing on our responsibility to our families or future families. We put a lot of love, energy and money into raising our kids, with hopes that they will become confident, healthy, considerate and happy individuals. In short, have a better future. And yet everything in our current environment does not allow us to provide what we wish to.

Here are only few examples; most of the foods that we buy in local food stores are full of additives, flavours, preservatives and sugar (unless we are able to afford to buy organic products, or grow or make it ourselves); our domestic environment is full of various materials, from carpets to children’s plastic toys to paints which “contain mutagenic materials, heavy metals, dangerous chemicals and dyes“[i], that are constantly emitting hazardous particles that we inhale. All this results in very serious health issues in kids and adults. There goes health...

The modern way of life for city dwellers is becoming more and more difficult. We hear about predictions of a 60% rise in electricity bills in the next 3 years, water rates won’t stay far behind. If we add fuel costs, rents and mortgages, the value of our money decreases, resulting in lower quality of life and our well being. Moreover, it will force us to work more only to maintain our current quality of life, leaving us with less time to spend with the family and much more stress. There goes quality of life...

As for the environment, well it is enough to see where we are today “the amount of resources we use (and buy), the waste we produce and the emissions we produce”[ii], to realise how ridiculously wasteful our consumer society is and the impact it has on the environment. There goes the future of our future generations...

In our discussions we’ve realised that although cohousing in its essence is social sustainability, and for some of the members the social aspect was their reason for joining, without the balance between the environmental & economical aspects as well, our community could not really exist and sustain itself.

Therefore the true meaning of social and affordable does not lay in how cheap we can build our homes, (unless alternative or innovative construction methods are adopted, it will most likely not be cheaper than buying a new house) or designing for social interaction. It lies in the adaptation of [ESD] environmentally sustainable design principles and [SCD] social contact design principles: collecting rain water, storm water, recycling grey water, if conditions allow, growing our own food, sharing transportation and amenities and by creating activities that encourage social interaction rather than imposing them, such as shared meals and more.

All of the above will allow us to significantly reduce our expenses, have more quality family time during the week, improve our social life, while preserving our privacy, increase our quality of life and well being.

The Cohousing model may be a magic bullet as a future housing type. It encourages pro-environmental behaviour; strong social networks; socially inclusivity; increases residents’ well-being; and provides affordable accommodation and lifestyle options. Cohousing also appears to fulfil the objectives and adopt similar design strategies as the New Urbanism movement for housing, which again is thought to produce more sustainable housing models.

Sydney Cohousing are committed to achieving and fulfilling these principals with hopes that inclusion and affordability will not undermine its sustainability credentials.

---

William McDonough & Michael Braungart, Cradle to Cradle (New York, North Point Press, 2002, P.4)

http://www.griffith.edu.au/ofm/sustainability/content_definition.html

Williams, Jo(2005) 'Sun, surf and sustainable housing—cohousing, the Californian experience', International Planning Studies, 10: 2, p.8]

Open Meeting

come along to our next 

Open Meeting

Saturday 1st May, 2-4pm
@ Currambena Primary and Preschool,
205 Longueville Road, Lane Cove.

For more information

sydneycohousing@gmail.com
Tel. 0405 129 756

Socialising on Cockatoo Island

Cockatoo Island in the middle of Sydney Harbour has an amazing "military style" encampment available to the public. Two cohousing families braved two nights amongst the countless camping Easter bunnies, while the other cohousers hopped on a Sunday ferry to share the warm and damp weather for a day. Everything there is either really new (the camp site), or rusting and falling apart (the ship building relics).

 

Tunnels criss-cross the island, abandoned houses and convict ruins & plenty of material for boys own adventures and ghosts.

   

Swimming in the harbour - a thoughtful shark proof net protects the entrance to the ship launching pad. A huge aquanaut stands guard by the pool.

 

Some cohousing mums and bubs.

 

The "mess hall" - several long tables and benches with BBQ kitchen and fridges.

All in all, a very enjoyable camping holiday where we caught a 5 minute ferry instead of driving for hours. We got to know each other a little more, discovered that we're a little more extraordinary than expected, and yet still regular folks.

Working Meetings

Sustainable Living Festival, Melbourne Feb 20/21

One of ‘Sydney Cohousing’ objectives is to link up and form a working relationship with other cohousing groups & associations, on the national & international scene while joining the effort in establishing Cohousing Australia Association.

Iain Walker and Giselle Wilkenson are the founders of Sustainable Living Festival & Sustainable Living Foundation, one of the premier environmental groups in Victoria. Their web site, Intentional Communities Australia, aims to provide information and resource for cohousing and cooperative communities. We have contacted Iain to find out what’s happening in Melbourne. Iain suggested us to come down to Melbourne for the festival and meet some of the active people in the Melbournian scene.

So I took the night train to Melbourne to team up with the guys in the Cohousing Australia stall. I thought that it would also be a good opportunity to go to some of the interesting talks and workshops offered as part of the festival programme, such as Urban Permaculture, Transition Towns, Deep Earth and more. Some of key figures taking part were, Uncle Bob Randall [Traditional Owner of Uluru], John Seed [an Australian environmentalist & director of the Rainforest Information Centre. He is also a prominent figure in the Deep Ecology movement]. David Holgram [an ecologist, ecological design engineer, writer, he is mostly well known as co-originator of the Permaculture concept with Bill Mollison, and through the spread of Permaculture around the world ] and many others.

Eventually I didn’t go to most of the talks, as I found myself enjoying working and hanging out at the stall, helping the guys promoting cohousing and explaining to all the visitors what it is all about. The best aspect of coming down to Melbourne was getting to know all the wonderful people involved [all volunteers]: Giselle Wilkenson, SLF founder and president, Phil Bourne of Common-Ground intentional community in Victoria & Cohousing Australia, Robin Williams, the founder and Ted from ‘Pinakarri Cohousing’ in Perth, Toni, Nathan, Heidi of Cohousing Australia, Paris of Urban Coop, Peter Cook of Murra Murra community. The opportunity to discuss & learn from their experiences in forming groups & living in intentional communities was invaluable, so thank you all for a great weekend.

Finally a Special thanks to Iain for his hospitality, kindness and knowledge.

Our first open meeting

We would like to start by thanking the families, who joined us today in our first open meeting. One of the great aspects about the process of creating a community is meeting new people and friends joining our journey, asking questions and sharing some of their insights.

In our talk Gilo presented what cohousing is (a group of people choosing to work together in creating a community), why cohousing [well, because there isn’t any other model that allows a real social interaction, without imposing it), who we are (just people like you and me), our structure (consensus process we are all leaders), and what we have done so far. Jamie explained how we started, and shared with us his experience growing up as a teenager in Cascade Cohousing in Hobart Tasmania. Martin, our MC, skilfully conducted our presentation, and answered the questions.

We were happy to find among our crowd, Mr. Keith McIlroy Lane Cove greens counsellor, who shared with us some of his experience and wisdom, and would like to join our effort in creating\ developing a sustainable cohousing community.

And offcourse as in any cohousing community, we also enjoyed sharing food while getting to know our prospective members better.

If one are interested in joining us at our next open meeting please join us on the first Saturday of April [03-04] for our second open meeting

Open Meeting

come along to our next OPEN MEETING on

Saturday 27 February, 2-4pm
at Currambena Primary and Preschool,  205 Longueville Road, Lane Cove.



For more information

sydneycohousing@gmail.com

What is Cohousing?

Cohousing is a type of intentional community where a group of people have organised to create an alternative neighbourhood, an alternative way of living which based on mutual respect for each other and the environment.

Cohousing residents are consciously committed to living as a community. The physical design encourages both social contact and individual space. Private homes contain all the features of conventional homes, but residents also have access to extensive common facilities such as open space, courtyards, a playground and a common house.

The common house is the social centre of a community, with a large dining room and kitchen, lounge, recreational facilities, children’s spaces, and frequently a guest room, workshop and laundry room. Communities usually serve optional group meals in the common house at least two or three times a week, all varies according to the diverse individuals which form the community.

Cohousing communities are usually designed as attached or single-family homes along one or more pedestrian streets or clustered around a courtyard. And in a dense urban environment where land is usually very expensive Cohousing may take the form of a residential building.

6 Defining Characteristics of Cohousing

While these characteristics aren't always true of every cohousing community, together they serve to distinguish cohousing from other types of collaborative housing:

1. Participatory process. Future residents participate in the design of the community so that it meets their needs. Some cohousing communities are initiated or driven by a developer. In those cases, if the developer brings the future resident group into the process late in the planning, the residents will have less input into the design. A well-designed, pedestrian-oriented community without significant resident participation in the planning may be “cohousing-inspired,” but it is not a cohousing community.

2. Neighbourhood design. The physical layout and orientation of the buildings (the site plan) encourage a sense of community. For example, the private residences are clustered on the site, leaving more shared open space. The dwellings typically face each other across a pedestrian street or courtyard, with cars parked on the periphery. Often, the front doorway of every home affords a view of the common house. What far outweighs any specifics, however, is the intention to create a strong sense of community, with design as one of the facilitators.

3. Common facilities. Common facilities are designed for daily use, are an integral part of the community, and are always supplemental to the private residences. The common house typically includes a common kitchen, dining area, sitting area, children's playroom and laundry, and also may contain a workshop, library, exercise room, crafts room and/or one or two guest rooms. Except on very tight urban sites, cohousing communities often have playground equipment, lawns and gardens as well. Since the buildings are clustered, larger sites may retain several or many acres of undeveloped shared open space.

4. Resident management. Residents manage their own cohousing communities, and also perform much of the work required to maintain the property. They participate in the preparation of common meals, and meet regularly to solve problems and develop policies for the community.

5. Non-hierarchical structure and decision-making. Leadership roles naturally exist in cohousing communities, however no one person (or persons) has authority over others. Most groups start with one or two “burning souls.” As people join the group, each person takes on one or more roles consistent with his or her skills, abilities or interests. Most cohousing groups make all of their decisions by consensus, and, although many groups have a policy for voting if the group cannot reach consensus after a number of attempts, it is rarely or never necessary to resort to voting.

6. No shared community economy. The community is not a source of income for its members. Occasionally, a cohousing community will pay one of its residents to do a specific (usually time-limited) task, but more typically the work will be considered that member's contribution to the shared responsibilities.

Reproduced with permission from www.cohousing.org

Shared Values

  1. Community

•    A safe place
•    Open communication
•    Treat each other with respect, trust, and honesty
•    Nurture and care for our environment
•    Seek opportunities to collaborate and share
•    Respect each other’s privacy
•    Integrate with and foster ongoing relationships with the wider community
•    Consensus and democracy
•    Conflict-resolution
•    A happy place

  2. Sustainability

•    Social: culturally accepting, psychologically nurturing, socially responsible community
•    Environmental: ecologically robust, generational sensitive, flexible, continuous learning
•    Financial: economically sustainable, technologically feasible,
•    Operationally viable
•    Use environmental sustainable design principles [ESD]
•    Seek and use innovation

  3. Quality

•    Aspire for excellence.   
•    Aim for longevity

  4.  Affordability

•    Wise financial investment
•    Creative and efficient use of resources

  5. Diversity

•    Acceptance and understanding of cultural, economical, philosophical  and spiritual      differences