This project is a site to support Cohousing groups in the design stage of a group housing development

Intro

Cohousing

Cohousing is an umbrella term for practices like Housing Collectives and Housing Co-operatives. It's a social and sustainable approach to housing where communities address their unique housing needs together, rather than relying on the free market. This approach prioritizes social needs over profit motives and can build strong communities that work towards a common goal. It can create communities around shared common values, such as environmentalism, or can be founded on similar demographics e.g. LGBTQ+ communities.

Importantly, it can help people out of the housing crisis, offering a way to move away from the speculative housing market and towards a different model. However, this is still not a mainstream practice. Successful examples are limited to specific contexts, such as rural eco-communities, rather than cities.

Problem Statement

Due to the participatory nature of the process, it can take years longer than mainstream development. They face problems with organizational issues such as forming cohesive vision statements, managing conflicts, and sustaining momentum.
There is a lack of societal and institutional awareness of this approach, and that there are other ways to having a home beyond the binary options of renting or purchasing property. As the housing crisis gets more serious in many places, Cohousing is not being discussed where it could provide a useful solution to this.

Research Questions:

What shape could a platform to address the problems of Cohousing and its community participants take, and what needs should this fulfil?

What factors may be currently impeding the larger-scale acceptance of Cohousing, and what might provide solutions to this?

Solution

KoHaus is a site which offers the dual functions of Cohousing Hub and Cohousing Platform, the former to market the cohousing practice and the latter to serve users currently in the process of setting up a cohousing project.

Hub

Platform

View Final Design →