Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities is a very interesting book, looking at co-housing communities, where people live in a unique type of housing development that values independence, but keeps a sense of community surrounding. This illustrated manual combines the practical design considerations with numerous case studies of co-housing communities in Europe and North America. Ideal also to create more sustainable lifestyles that are within walking distance of parks and shops, co-housing communities also make everything from gardening to childcare much easier.
If planting green spaces, learn how to make gardens safe for pets (includes indoor plants to avoid). Avoid facing indoor foliage to gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows.
A book to put the ‘neighbour’ back into neighbourhoods, the authors are award-winning architects who have designed over 50 co-housing communities in the USA and consulted on many more worldwide. They also wrote the Senior Cohousing Handbook, which looks at how such communities can lead to better health, social contact, safety and affordability for older residents. Also read Community Led Housing.
CoHousing lists communities across England. And in Manchester, MICO is building a sustainable, intergenerational cohousing community.
