Cohousing: A Spatial Embodiment of the Collective Ideal

Abstract

Cultural narratives and art that are experienced and created are a way to understand how spaces are designed and how social relationships in private and public spaces are performed. This thesis argues that the ideals behind cohousing are the same values centered within Danish poetry from the 1960s to the present, as well as Danish literature and philosophy from the 1800s. The exact order of how we organize our days and what we value may change, but life’s daily rituals are a means of connection and should be given space. The everyday and the mundane offer an alternative way to shape the design of communities and new construction, particularly in the United States. There are many articles that speak of cohousing as a solution for loneliness, but this thesis argues that it’s not a solution to get rid of it, but a way to have space to integrate those feelings. Life exists in the quiet and in-between spaces, and cohousing is remarkable because of this. Cohousing, in its current form, began in Denmark and is an English translation of the Danish bofællesskaber (living community or shared accommodation). It is defined as a community of separate individual units, a common house/space, and shared common exterior space between units that focuses on the pedestrian rather than the automobile. Cohousing began as a spatial solution to two everyday problems of child care and meal preparation. The design focused on the integration of the public and the private through 32 units and a shared common house with space in between that facilitates community interaction. It is also a financial and and contractual relationship where all parties create and maintain the spatial through a communal process of decision making. Cohousing is a way to both acknowledge and embody interdependence that exists within nature and our larger society as a whole. This thesis proposes a design of a cohousing community in Columbia City in Seattle. This community is designed around the human and their everyday experience. Columbia City is historical area and in the beginning stages of upzoning to higher density. So much of current development is driven by the free market, and one of the key ideologies holding this in place is the idea that everyone is alone and self-reliant. This denies the reality of social systems, and that leads to everyday life being regarded as something to escape rather than live within and even celebrate. Cohousing offers a way that redevelopment can design a spatial and a social means to center the human and their everyday experience.