#Cohousing

[ititledit]

We have brothers, sons, lovers – but they can’t live here!’ The happy home shared by 26 women

With residents aged from 58 to 94, New Ground is the UK’s first cohousing community exclusively for older women. Setting it up was an 18-year battle – but with soaring numbers of people living alone, is this an idea whose time has come?

Chipping Barnet, a leafy suburb of north London, is an unlikely location for a feminist utopia. Yet it is here, at the top of the high street, past the Susi Earnshaw theatre school and the Joie de Vie patisserie, that you will find Britain’s first cohousing community exclusively for women over 50. The purpose-built development is entirely managed by the women who set it up as an alternative to living alone.

New Ground’s entrance, all glass and bold typography, could easily be mistaken for a co-working space, as could the common room I am ushered into. Everything is bright, airy and spotlessly clean. The walls are lined with sleek white bookcases and a cinema-grade TV screen. The only clue as to the residents’ demographic is an unfinished 1,000-piece jigsaw on a table overlooking the large garden.

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Ahhh today I learned so much from an older activist at a peatland habitat and then had a lovely social meeting a cohousing community and learning about all their efforts! I love community I love my studies I love dedicating my life to this stuff

[andazzi]

(via Conen Sigl transforms the site of a former Swiss plant nursery into a cooperative housing complex | Archello)

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Solarpunk Considers Cohousing, With Hermina Joldersma

In this episode, Ariel talks to Hermina Joldersma, professor emerita at University of Calgary, about alternative housing arrangements, focusing on co-housing. They discuss not only Hermina’s experiences living in different types of housing, but the mindset necessary to co-housing and communal life, and the way that community often has to be intentionally created. Tune in now!

Links:

Hermina Joldersma’s profile page at University of Calgary

Hermina Joldersma at Fibre Art Network

Urban Green Cohousing

CBC article on Urban Green and co-housing in Canada

CoHo BC official website

[arc-hus]

R50 – Cohousing, Berlin - Heide & von Beckerath

https://heidevonbeckerath.com/

[35letters]

(via Generatorn Housing / Spridd + Secretary + Septembre | ArchDaily)

[growingupgreene]

Resisting the urge to blow up at my neighbors for bullying my other neighbor:

“This isn’t how we resolve issues in a cohousing community, we solve things through calm and thoughtful critique, don’t yell at them for harassment, it won’t be heard unless it’s coming from a calm place, breathe, …”

I know I’m gonna end up sending at least one email/ having a call-out conversation w/ at least one of them… but all in good time

[wandererseye]

I HATE MY ROOMMATE SHE IS A BITCH SHE NEVER SHARES SHE HAS NO RESPECT SHE CLAIMS EVERYTHING I UGHHHHHHH

[corciano-trasimeno-online]

Disabilità, a Castiglion Fosco la prima struttura del Trasimeno adibita ad esperienze di "co-housing" Sorgerà a Castiglion Fosco, nel comune di Piegaro, la prima struttura del Trasimeno adibita a esperienze di co-housing per persone con disabilità. Il ...

[gab-has-adhd]

July 10, 2023

I think I was discussing getting in co-housing with my best friend and his boyfriend, which sounds like a horrible idea IRL because the last time we did that terrible things happened. I don't remember much about this dream other than at one point I was reading the news and I saw an article with a photo of the most basic "though" white guy type (a la Andrew Tate), and the article was titled "Cincinnati (that was the guy's name) want to transition to a dark skinned person."

AI dream interpretation

The symbolism in this dream likely points to feelings of discomfort and uneasiness. The idea of co-housing with your best friend and his boyfriend can symbolize feelings of insecurity or fear, as the dreamer remembers that the last time they did this, terrible things happened. The article with the photo of the white guy likely represents the dreamer's feelings of anxiety and unease in the current situation, as the article is about someone transitioning to a different skin color, which could signify that the dreamer is feeling out of place or uncomfortable in their current situation. Additionally, the white guy in the photo could symbolize feelings of conformity or conformity pressure, as the dreamer is likely feeling pressure to conform to the societal standards of what a person should look like. All together, this dream is likely pointing to the dreamer's feelings of discomfort, insecurity, and pressure to conform in their current situation.

[essentialise]

IKEA Docuseries: Episode 2 So much fun to film. And now live on the IKEA website. #ikeauk #belonging #homely #refugeestories #orangery #communalliving #cohousing #bradforduponavon #interiorsexpert #cooperativecommunity https://www.instagram.com/p/CmhAOFAouDh/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ititledit]

This headline does not do the story justice

"Aware that his house in Machynlleth could become a "palatial" second home for the highest bidder, he opted instead to sell it to his lodgers.

"Quite a few people said I was crazy," grinned Mr Corden.

The 62-year-old retired psychiatric nurse, who now lives in Spain, said: "I don't think it's always great to go for the biggest penny, there are other things in life than just making as much money as you can."

...

"When he decided to sell and move abroad, he wanted the creative and progressive spirit of the house to continue, even if it meant he would be worse off.

"I had a bunch of really nice lodgers who were established there. They were very keen on the idea of it becoming a housing co-operative.

"So I thought - let's try it and see how far it gets."

Offering Bryn Tyrnol at a knockdown price allowed his former lodgers to form a housing co-operative to buy it.

It means they share ownership and management of a house they could not afford as individuals."

As someone who has bought a house with three other people for this reason, Im going to keep promoting the idea of housing cooperatives.

You don't have to buy a home with a partner. There are lenders and organisations who will support you in building an alternative way of living.

We ended up borrowing from a traditional building society, so I cant first hand vouch for the above, but people are making it work! You can do it too!

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Solarpunk Sunday Suggestion

Learn about cohousing

[crabs-with-sticks]

The possibility of aromantic living situations

Busy this Valentines Day as an aroace person thinking about the relationship between capitalism, family structures, and property (very normal thing to think about I know). In a book I read recently, The Mushroom at the End of the World; On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, she talks about one of the goals of capitalism is scalability. Scalability is about making sure that a unit can work on every different sized model. Endless growth is an important part of capitalism, and if all your 'units' are the same size, you can easily create the same thing, just bigger, only requiring more of the same parts, rather than creating new parts. E.g. if you have a square block, you can create the exact same shape just bigger (read: making more money) if you have four more of the same square blocks.

The nuclear family is one of those squares that forms the basis of so much of society from housing to child raising to everyday finances. It is no secret that the nuclear family (mum, dad, and kids) is seen as the ideal and moral family structure in most of the west. And colonialism has had a big part in exporting this to other places around the world. But for many people, especially aro folks, this structure just doesn't fit what we want out of life.

And I've just been thinking about how that idea of the nuclear family is related to property and wealth and how it disadvantages queer folks. In the country which I live in, there is a massive housing crisis and owning a house is a pipe dream for many because of the cost. Property is culturally seen as probably the main way in which you build wealth/capital because you don't get taxed on it (there is no property/capital gains tax) and there are SO MANY tax benefits for landlords its insane. So when housing is linked so majorly to wealth and capitalism it makes sense that you would want it to be scalable.

And what is the most scalable living/family structure? The nuclear family. So, since housing is market driven, theres no incentive to create other types of houses/living situations except those designed for the nuclear family. Because property/housing is so ingrained in capitalism, that its an investment, and you want to be going for a big portion of the market.

This just creates an endless cycle of property enforcing traditional nuclear family structures, and nuclear family structures enforcing property. Because there is no incentive to provide anything different and there is limited ability to be anything else. And even if a person, or developer or whatever wants to create something non-typical (e.g. cohousing and coliving, at least in my country) because its not scalable or market friendly, good luck finding a bank to give you a loan, or a developer to work on it, or hell even the government to have proper land classifications to make such a project possible.

It just frustrates me so much as a non-partnering aromantic person because I feel like I have no options and I have to fit my circular shape into a square just so that people can build a bigger model of the exact same thing. And I think its something that we don't talk enough about in the queer community, and that we make ourselves into these square blocks because there is no other way to be, and in doing so just enforcing the very structures that oppress us.

So anyway, rant over. Hopefully my brain dump made sense and resonates with some of y'all. And go read The Mushroom at the End of the World, its really eye opening.

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Introducing Season 4

A year and a bit more or so, I had no idea we’d get this far. But here we are, about to break ground on Season 4 of our podcast.

Of all the seasons we’ve done so far, Season 4 is the one that comes closest to having a theme, inasmuch as we’ll be taking several different episodes to explore facets of one enormous topic… solarpunk housing.

For starters, this is because housing is one of solarpunk’s central dreams. What solarpunk hasn’t dreamed of those huge buildings draped in plants and solar panels? Or of cozy cottages and their resplendent gardens? But, honestly, solarpunk’s imaginings of housing ought to go deeper than the aesthetic.

How would we be best living in this housing, for instance? Alone? In nuclear family units? Far more multigenerationally or in intentional families? As parts of co-ops or communally on a far, far larger scale (think: buildings housing 20,000 people in a semi-communal setting)?

And, never mind the aesthetics of solarpunk housing from the singular to the grand, how would solarpunk housing be designed to help meet or otherwise respond to people’s physical, financial, and emotional needs? And by people, we mean everyone, not just the people who can afford to buy or rent housing in the current climate where—especially in urban and suburban North America—housing prices have been escalating ferociously faster than most people’s incomes.

On that note, a deeper dreaming of solarpunk housing would consider the revolution it would be for us to stop treating housing as assets and investments, but really honestly almost really mostly as homes. Can solarpunk imagine enormous communal housing that isn’t horrible and depersonalizing, like the cold, hard dormitories of some earlier science fiction novels, where you’re assigned a room based strictly on what is generically deemed your needs and you have to eat in a cafeteria and you have nothing to call your own aside from a couple of meager possessions.

But that’s not all Season 4 has in store. We’ll be tackling some other topics, too. We’ll be hearing about distributed production as a radically democratic means to shorten supply chains, empower people, and counter some of the ill effects of globalization. We’ll be talking about solarpunk spirituality in all its witchy bioluminescent mushroomness. We’ll hear about designing a game that helps people learn about, explore, and come to terms with climate change. And that’s not even half of what we have in store for you in Season 4.

I think it’s going to be a great season! I’m looking forward to it and I hope you are too.

Season 4 Episode 1 will go public on Monday, Nov 13, but join our Patreon now for early access to Episode 1 of Season 4 on Monday November 6, as well as bonus clips, dispatches, and other exclusive content. Either way, hope to have you there!

[froggycohost]

honk snoooo honk mimimi...