What is Cohousing?
Cohousing is not a new concept, it has been around since the 1970s. One of the first cohousing communities in New Zealand was the Earthsong ecovillage, which started in the mid-1990s.
These intentionally designed neighbourhoods supports both privacy and social interaction. People live in their own homes and have opportunities to interact with others in the shared spaces when they want to socialise.
Shared Common Resources
A common house central to the community design, along with other shared resources and facilities like gardens, worksheds, and laundry. The common house includes a dining room for sharing meals on a regular basis, community meetings, and other shared spaces such as a children’s playroom or spare rooms when guests stay. Resources such as lawn mowers are shared across the community, so there are enough to share instead of every home owning one and using occasionally. In the laundry, there is a small number of washing machines and dryers for the community to use.
Equity With Shared Decision-making
Shared decision-making supports equity within the cohousing community, and is part of its process and principles. Every adult is involved in the decision making, and has the opportunity to speak and be heard as part of the community, including in the design process for the neighbourhood.
People create a supportive and nurturing community because they know their neighbours, and everyone in the community has their own private home and a garden to enjoy, whilst also feeling part of the community giving them a great sense of belonging.
A Way To Address The Housing Crisis
Some people see cohousing as a way to address the housing crisis. This is the problem of increasing property prices pushing some New Zealanders out of the property market. How cohousing solves this problem is that people tend to live in smaller homes and share some resources, which makes the housing more affordable and the lifestyle more sustainable.
Listen to the RNZ audio below to learn how cohousing may be able to address the housing crisis.
Cohousing Is Becoming More Common
Over recent years we see more and more cohousing communities created in New Zealand, with diverse, intentional communities of healthy homes made from sustainable materials. We appreciate the mahi done by these cohousing communities in New Zealand. These are:
Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood in Auckland
Earthsong cohousing community began design of it’s community in 1995. Then the site was selected, and the ecovillage build was completed in 2008. Earthsong is one of the most established cohousing communities in New Zealand and they share their learnings and challenges with others to learn from.
Learn more about Earthsong, listen to the RNZ audio below.
Tākaka Cohousing in Tākaka, Tasman
Tākaka Cohousing community is located in the beautiful Tasman region. They completed their first neighbourhood in 2024 and are planning the second, which is due to be completed in 2025. They speak regularly with the mainstream media, demystifying cohousing for the general public.
Learn more about Tākaka Cohousing, listen to the RNZ audio below.
Cohousing Principles
Fareham Journey follows these cohousing principles, shared by the Earthsong Eco-neighbourhood and they paved the way for our vision.
1. Participatory process:
Members organise and participate in the planning and design process for the housing development and are responsible as a group for all the final decisions, either with or without a separate developer.
2. Intentional neighbourhood design:
The physical design of the houses and the walkways encourage a strong sense of community while safeguarding privacy and increasing the possibilities for spontaneous social contact.
3. Common facilities:
Each household has a complete private residence but has access to common areas and facilities, including a large common house, which are integrally designed for daily use to supplement private living areas.
4. Resident management:
Residents manage the development, making decisions of common concern at community meetings using inclusive, participatory decision-making processes.
5. Non-hierarchical structure and decision-making:
While there are leadership roles, responsibility for the decisions is shared by the community’s adults and no one person dominates the decisions or the community process.
6. Separate Income Sources:
Households are responsible for their own income and finances and do not rely on the community for their primary income.
Cohousing Resources
Here is a collection of resources about cohousing. We have a section called ‘Start here’ for those of you new to the concept of cohousing community. After you have seen what others have done, you can revisit the Fareham Journey vision.