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Inspiring cohousing communities

The Archive wanted to build a cohousing community. This is a collection of successful projects that I find inspiring.

  • Cohousing Communities
  • Trudeslund
  • Jerngarden
  • Jystrup Savvaerket
  • Bondebjerget
  • FrogSong Cohousing
  • Hearthstone Cohousing
  • Doyle Street
  • Berkeley Cohousing
  • Swan's Market Cohousing
  • Other inspirations
  • Bell Labs
  • Embassy SF
  • Tuxedo Park
  • Pacific Science Institute
  • Cottage communities
  • Stochastic Labs
  • Agapolis

Cohousing Communities

Trudeslund

32 units, suburban, great common house.

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Jerngarden

8 families, urban, they've joined their backyards.

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Jystrup Savvaerket

21 units joined by a glass-covered street! Each unit has a "supplementary room" that may be used as guest room, home office, storage, etc.

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Bondebjerget

4 separate villages of 21 units each. Villages have their own identities and have friendly competitions.

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FrogSong Cohousing

30 units. Main building is mixed-use (ground floor is a coffee shop) in downtown Sonoma County.

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Hearthstone Cohousing

32 unit urban infill project in an old amusement park.

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Doyle Street

12 units in a refurbished factory in Emeryville. Overcame fierce neighborhood opposition and has since received praise from their once-enemies in local government and nearby NIMBYs.

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Berkeley Cohousing

Features cottage-like smaller homes in backyards. As of September 2019, it became legal to add 1-2 cottages to single-family zoned land in California and rent them out separately (these are called "accessory dwelling units" or ADUs). ADUs are a big f'ing deal and make neighborhoods like Berkeley Cohousing much easier to build.

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Swan's Market Cohousing

Another redevelopment, this one in an old warehouse.

Located in Downtown Oakland.

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Many of these villages are described further in Creating Cohousing, by Durrett and McCamant. My book highlights can be found on this page.

Other inspirations

Bell Labs

Bell Labs

Nokia Bell Labs (formerly named Bell Labs Innovations (1996-2007), AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984-1996) and Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925-1984)) is an industrial research and scientific development company owned by Finnish company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several laboratories in the United States and around the world.

Bell Labs

Embassy SF

welcome to the embassy sf

The flagship location in the Embassy Network, the Embassy San Francisco is an experiment in creating a home built around purpose, intention, and exploration, in creating a community dedicated to maintaining and diversifying the commons. The Embassy Network is designing new ways to manage resources and govern space together.

welcome to the embassy sf

Tuxedo Park

Alfred Lee Loomis

Alfred Lee Loomis (November 4, 1887 - August 11, 1975) was an American attorney, investment banker, philanthropist, scientist, physicist, inventor of the LORAN Long Range Navigation System, and a lifelong patron of scientific research. He established the Loomis Laboratory in Tuxedo Park, New York, and his role in the development of radar and the atomic bomb contributed to the Allied victory in World War II.

Alfred Lee Loomis

Pacific Science Institute

Pacific Science Institute

about-pacific-science-institute Our mission is to provide scientists the freedom to explore the boundaries of knowledge in an independent, transdisciplinary research community outside the confines of traditional academic institutions. The Pacific Science Institute is an outpost on the frontier of science, geographically and intellectually, with an ever-expanding reach.

Pacific Science Institute

Cottage communities

Best Friends Build Their Own Tiny Town So They Can Retire And Grow Old Together

Chances are, you have had the thought of moving away and being surrounded with the people you love the most. These best friends are actually doing it. While your ideal "get away from it all" escape may be an island retreat, or mountain cabin in the middle of a forest, these 8 friends had another idea: build an eco-town made out of tiny homes in good ol' Texas.

Best Friends Build Their Own Tiny Town So They Can Retire And Grow Old Together

Tiny homes made the last development incredibly cheap! The only building you really need to design is the common area - perhaps you could scale up or down flexibly by adding tiny homes on an as-needed basis.

Stochastic Labs

About

Stochastic Labs convenes the best creative minds in the SF bay area and beyond for conversations about the future of technology, science, entrepreneurship, and the arts (in a curious Victorian mansion in Berkeley). Events are by invitation but you can apply for seed funds for your creative tech venture (we take no equity) or to be an artist/engineer in residence (yes, there's a laser-cutter and a tower).

You can apply for seed funds for a creative tech venture (we take no equity) or to be an artist/engineer in residence.

Agapolis

Agapolis

"Agape is an overflowing love which is purely spontaneous, unmotivated, groundless, and creative, in which the individual seeks not his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Agape does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people. It begins by loving others for their sakes." -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Agapolis