Co-Housing

I've always been fascinated by the way we relate to the spaces we inhabit, and how those spaces in turn affect us. This led me to my education and initial career in architecture and interior design, and later to creating Chirp.

I often find myself questioning aspects of the "normal" way of living. Through my research I discovered the concept of co-housing, and this weekend I visited a co-housing community in East Sussex.

Co-housing differs from communal living, in that you have your own private home, but you also have shared space, shared responsibilities, and some shared facilities.

I was particularly drawn to the idea of co-housing because I like the idea of sharing resources (space, equipment, effort) rather than boxing everybody off individually.

In the community I visited there were several things which particularly appealed to me:

Communal work days

Jobs needing to be done around the gardens and buildings would be done by groups of residents. Working in a team of 5 or 6 people to get each job done just made so much sense. A job that might have taken one person all day took a matter of hours, with the added bonus of cheerful conversation, shared skills, and group problem solving.

Shared resources

By having one large vegetable patch, rather than 10 small ones, the work to plant, maintain, and harvest the vegetables is considerably reduced, as well as making more efficient use of space, sharing the workload, and cutting down the duplication of tools needed. This particular community also teamed up to purchase a poly tunnel for germinating seedlings, something an individual gardener could only dream of!
There was also a treehouse and trampoline for the children. Buying or building these things for just one child would be expensive, both financially and in terms of space taken up. But sharing between 10 or 15 children makes so much more sense.

Human connection

Knowing your neighbours is not a given these days, and while many people do make connections with those living nearby, it can be very unreliable as a source of human connection.

While everybody was different and had their own values and motivations, and some chose to keep mostly to themselves, to have a neighbourhood of people who have intentionally come together felt like a very special thing.