Cohousing is a type of living arrangement that is strongly focused on community. Families live in their own privately owned homes. But typically, a common house and shared outside spaces ensure that neighbors get to know each other, through community meals and outdoor activities like gardening and recreation.
One reason to embrace cohousing is the environmental benefits. Such is the case with Belfast Cohousing and Ecovillage in coastal Maine. Matthew O’Malia is one of the principals at GO Logic, the design firm responsible for the development.
“The focus was first of all to preserve farmland and open space, and using a dense footprint, intentional community development to do that. The other reason we wanted to configure the buildings closely and tightly together as a clustered community was to reduce construction costs – to make the community more affordable – but also using less landscape, less roads, less impervious surfaces, which obviously has an environemtnal and ecological advantage. And then finally, the buildings were built to the passive house standard for energy performance: highly insulated structures, triple-glazed windows, heat recovery ventilation, and the rest, as well as being duplexes, triplexes, and quad, and the benefit there is again reduced footprint of development, but also improved efficiency of the building units because of the shared common walls.”
Keeping the housing units small, and clustering them together not only promotes a sense of community. It enables the community to enjoy a scenic environment that will be preserved for generations to come.
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Web Links
The Cohousing Association of the United States
Architecture and Passive-House-standard buildings from GO Logic
Photo, taken on September 26, 2008, courtesy of Seier+Seier via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY.