Cohousing (cohousing): what is it and what lifestyle does it propose?

We live in a society that with the passage of time has become increasingly individualistic, at least in the urban area: each one cares of his own life and those of his closest environment, but the feeling of community and union with the rest of the people who support us has been lost. surround.

Little by little, this tendency towards individualism is becoming more perceptible to us, and with the passage of time Over time, alternative ways and models of life have been emerging that, theoretically, try to generate community. An example of this is cohousing., which we are going to talk about throughout this article.

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What is cohousing or cohousing?

It is known as cohousing, or in Spanish covivienda, a model or style of community that involves the creation of a self-managed community in which coexistence is focused on the community and on cooperation with the rest of its members.

Based on solidarity with the rest of the community and with an organization that functions democratically, it is a type of organization that

It supposes the generation of a socio-community network of support and in which there is great cohesion between the people who are part of it.

This type of community is generally configured around one or (more usually), multiple houses or individual buildings with different shared common areas where social and community life takes place. Each of the users or inhabitants of a cohousing is an active part of this community, and also has the responsibility to participate in its management.

Although the name may make it seem otherwise, cohousing does not necessarily imply that everyone lives in the same house and without any type of privacy: although there are cases in which multi-family homes are built and cohabited, generally each individual or family has their own home.

Each of the members of this community has their own personal and economic autonomy. However, sometimes in this type of society the economic system may tend to reduce or eliminate the idea of ​​ownership. private to favor the collective (although its economy is not shared), and trade based on the exchange or barter of services.

Main characteristics of cohousing

One of the main bases of cohousing is that it is based, as we have seen previously, on solidarity and in the search for social cohesion and active participation in the community.

Another of them is sustainability, since it starts from a design directly thought for the use that will be provided to each of the spaces. In addition to this, it allows to put a use and return to life areas that are little inhabited or in the process of abandonment, by being able to use these communities said areas, remodel them and live in them (something that also allows to recover or keep alive the history of said places).

It is also common for community spaces to include elements that allow the management and production of own resources, such as orchards.

In addition to this, as one of the most relevant bases of cohousing we can cite the way of organizing and making decisions. There is no hierarchical structure (although it is possible for an individual to take a leadership role in some area in which they decide to specialize).

The relation to the domiciles can be variable. The most common is that the houses are not owned by the individual, but by the community, of which the user has a lifetime usufruct, and they are designed or adapted to the needs of the subject. In this sense they have the advantage that They do not represent an economic expense as high as that of maintaining your own home.

Last but not least, it makes it possible to reduce problems such as the aforementioned loneliness and the need for care without having to lose independence at the individual level, while generating a collaborative culture and a common bond between the members of society created.

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Implantation in the third age: senior cohousing

Cohousing is a trend that, although it is not particularly well known, is gradually becoming more popular. Its history is not so recent: its most modern origins are found in the sixties, specifically in Denmark, from where it spread to the Nordic countries and the United States. Since then, different modalities have emerged, of which one of the most widespread today (at least in Spain) is the one that has to do with the elderly.

In senior cohousing, the inhabitants of the community are people over 55 years of age. The reason why the popularity of this type of community organization has increased in this sector is the existence of two of the most painful scourges that a large number of elderly people may have to deal with front facing: loneliness and, in the case of people with few resources, poverty.

Many people resort to cohousing since it allows them to maintain an organization based on solidarity and on social cohesion, in addition to the fact that the economic cost of maintaining a house or rent today is greatly reduced in day.

And not only that: one of the social implications of this type of cohousing is that a paternalistic vision of old age is set aside, in which the old man himself was seen as a rather passive subject. Instead, the older person's activity is promoted as someone with experience and a need to participate in the world that surrounds him, giving him responsibility and the possibility of exercising different types of social functions according to the needs community.

Bibliographic references:

• Banford, G. (2005). Cohousing for older people: Housing innovation in the Netherlands and Denmark. Australasian Journal on Aging, 24 (1): 44-46.
• George, v. (2006). Review of Sustainable community: Learning from the cohousing model. Community Development Journal, no. 41(3): 393-398.
• McCamant, K. & Durett, C. (1989). Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves. Berkeley, University of California Press.
• Rosa Jiménez, C.L., Márquez Ballesteros, M.J., Navas Carrillo, D. (2017). Towards a new management and self-financing model for the regeneration of obsolete neighborhoods. Cities, 20: 45-70.