Ideaplants

What is co-housing?


The principle of co-housing (or collaborative housing) is simple. You live together with a group of people that are not necessarily your family or relatives and you share certain areas of your home with them. You share certain resources (e.g. space, food, energy, green areas, cars etc.) and certain parts of your life (e.g. free time, weekends, cleaning, celebrations).


There are many Co-Housing initiatives in Europe, America, Australia and many other parts of the world. Key challenge of this approach is to create a Win-Win-Win for all people involved in the project. This way of living is not only interesting for individuals – especially families with children and seniors can support from this type of living environment where a community supports each other in daily life.


In Belgium you can already find some co-housings although larger scale co-housing is still a new concept.

Last weekend I went to visit La Grande Cense with a group of volunteers. This co-housing community near Brussels is now some last renovations before all individuals and families can start moving into their new homes. They are therefore organizing a summer camp where everyone is invited to help.


A group of 30 grown ups and 15 children will be soon living in 20 units in a fully renovated old farm with a big inner courtyard for social gatherings, a big and sunny terrace, shared kitchen & lounging facilities and large garden space.


Although the construction site already looks liveable it was not the actual space that impressed me most this weekend. I was more impressed by the group members.


You can feel that everyone at the Grande Cense group has gone through an intense learning process. Becoming clear about your own core values, defining a shared vision, establishing an effective decision making process and clear ground rules. All this costs a lot of time and effort and it is as essential for a co-housing project as finding a nice space to live and defining technical and ecological parameters.

What is more challenging than sharing your life with a group of people?

It takes a strong core group with shared values, a clear vision and the necessary organizational and people skills, to set up a co-housing project.


Our little volunteer group was using ecological paint to paint some of the walls in the common area. With all information and tips for a future co-housing project we gathered and some nice conversations, it only felt good to be able to contribute 2 days of work to this project.


Thanks for this nice weekend to everyone at La Grande Cense!

Hello,

We are involved in an ecological housing project in Karlstad, Sweden.


Our city already has two ecovillages called Tuggelite (which was first in Sweden) and Mjölnartorpet. Since almost everyone keeps on living in their ecohouses it’s hard to move there. That is why we came up with the idea to create Ekoby3.0 (EcoVillage3.0).


So far we are 23 families who are involved. These are both single households, single families and families of all ages.


We find ourselves in the first development phase. The project team has visited the two current ecovillages in Karlstad and had a first discussion round with the municipality. Karlstad municipality is very positive towards our plans. The next step is to map all families ideas and wishes. Finding financing is tough at the moment, but by the time we will invest the situation might have changed. We have contacts with the Swedish interest free JAK member bank and the Swedish Ekobanken. Website (Swedish)


Our motivations are diverse, but all of us support the idea of ecological housing. For me personal I’d like to develop housing which provides the opportunity to live under my personal ecological footprint.


Tip: All Swedens ecological housing projects here


Best regards,
Sebastian