The Cohousing Company

in collaboration with

Antioch University Continuing Education

How to Start Affordable Cohousing:

Learn from the leading architect and builder of cohousing, Charles Durrett

It only takes 2 things to build a cohousing community—a vision and a clear set of steps.

Charles Durrett will impart his decades of experience so that you can create, finance and maintain the affordability of your dream residential community.

Learn all about cohousing! What it is, why it is meaningful, and how to create or join your own cohousing community. This online course will use discussion, presentation, participatory activities , as well as guided independent learning to explore the concept and practice of cohousing.

Here are some examples of the topic that we will be discussing in this class.

Education and Awareness

When starting a new high-functioning neighborhood, it is crucial to make the literature and awareness available to as many people as possible. Cohousing is more than a term––it is a slightly more complex way of living, but infinitely more gratifying.

People-Hours per week

How is this calculated? People often say, “it must be difficult.” In fact, it can be extremely fun and it’s critical for improving discussions and designs over time. Nevada City receives about 450 people-hours per week and Trudeslund gets about 750. And these metrics are key to post-occupancy evaluation—“Does it work or does it not work?” should be an objectively answerable question.

Zoning and Re-zoning

Since zoning practices began in the U.S in 1916, they have been used to keep classes and races separate (see Chapter 7), and redlining continued to reinforce that in the 1930s. Cohousing can uniquely challenge these racist legacies more effectively than other means, because it brings the people to the planning table.

Cohousing Certification

There are communities that inadvertently call themselves cohousing that are in fact very cohousing inspired, cohousing-like, and are lovely places for sure, but are not cohousing. I firmly believe cohousing needs to be certified for its continuing success, just as organic farming needed certification before it really took off in the US.

Antioch University 4-Part Live Online Program: Classes' Order Correction

How to Start Affordable Cohousing

September 13, 20, 27, & October 4, 2022

This definitive course covers a complete, start-to-finish guide for starting a new cohousing community in your town.

Cohousing Communities:

Designing for High-Functioning Neighborhoods

The new definitive book on cohousing and high-functioning neighborhood design is now available through Wiley and Amazon website @ $39.95. Right now you can use the code ARC20 at checkout for 20% on Wiley website as well.

Buy from Wiley Buy from Amazon

Books by Charles Durrett

Books have played a major role from the beginning in terms of getting cohousing to this country and built in your town, starting with our first book Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves (The European Story). Bookstores normally play a key role in culture change in general, and cohousing is no exception.

Many groups have contacted the publisher (New Society Press) directly to get bulk discounts, and I find that successful projects get started when lots of folks do their homework. I usually need to give a dozen copies of Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities and/or Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living away to planners, banks, neighbors, mayors, new residents, local architects, builders, and so on—to give them context. It saves the group thousands and thousands of hours, dollars, and delays. Cohousing is more than a sound bite; it is cultural pivot, and it takes folks doing some fun research first. Seattle and the surrounding areas have about a dozen cohousing communities largely because the bookstores in town have sold more than 500 copies of Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities