<< Regardless of whether the community is diverse, all were developed by a fairly homogeneous group with similar views. In order to survive, beginning groups cannot handle too much diversity of methods or goals. Santa Rosa Creek Commons was developed by a core group of very like-minded members.
Once the development and construction was completed, a larger and more diverse membership was incorporated into the existing group. >>
Dorit Fromm, researcher on senior cohousing, partner in a design firm, author, US (in: ‘Collaborative communities – cohousing, central living and other new forms of housing with shared facilities’, 1991)
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<< In the early 1970s […] a group of UC Davis students leased a five-bedroom house and began operating it as the N Street Co-op. While membership in this five-to-six person household changed over time, it operated like most other student co-ops, with members sharing food, chores, gardening, and camaraderie.
In 1984 […] one of the members, Kevin Wolf […] figured out how to buy it. […] Soon after the purchase, Kevin and his housemates began looking over the fence at the house next door, dreaming about […] to buy that house as well and take down the fence between them. In 1986, Kevin and Linda Cloud, his colleage and future wife, purchased the neighboring house.
They did tear down the fence, and soon afterward convinced friends to buy or rent nearby houses on the block and do the same […]. They decided that cohousing was the model they would pursue for their community, and N Street Cohousing was born. […]
Although there is no longer a student co-op at N Street Cohousing, the community still has a strong student component, as two of their [11] houses [(21 in 2014)] are rented by groups of students. At least five of the 32 adults in the community have previously lived in student co-ops … >>
Deniz Tuncer (in: ‘Who says we have to move out? – A Tiny Co-op Becomes N Street Cohousing’, Communities Magazine, 2001)
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Tien tips (door Cohousing L’Echappée):
- Spring in het water (en wacht niet per se op je vrienden)
- Weet waar je naartoe wil (Schrijf een Handvest)
- Leer ‘actief luisteren’ (jij bent gewoon een boom in het bos)
- Ontwikkel ‘Collectieve Intelligentie’ (en leer efficiënt te vergaderen)
- Wees duidelijk over je financiën (hoe moeilijk praten over geld ook is…)
- Kies een juridische structuur (die bij je project past)
- Omring jezelf met deskundigen (coach – notaris – architecten – boekhouder)
- Ga op zoek naar een (bouw)terrein (wanneer jullie er klaar voor zijn)
- Pas op voor de valkuilen van de bouw ( het duurt ALTIJD langer dan verwacht)
- Draag zorg voor alle relaties in het web
en … have fun (het belangrijkste)
Matthieu Lietaert, mede-stichter van Cohousing L’Echappée, Laken (in: ‘Presentatie over L’Echappée’, 2016)
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<< … in collaborative housing, the user is not an individual, but rather a group of people who share a set of basic values that define the housing project where they want to live.
These new partnerships open up new collaboration processes that lead every actor to reposition him or herself. […] in some cases service providers can transform their role to that of a facilitator of platforms and networks, thereby freeing up manpower and workload.
Over the course of coproduction processes, boundaries between what is specific to the ‘professional’ or to the ‘user’ become fuzzy, creating space for cross-fertilisation of technical and practical knowledge. At an organisational level, this could result in higher levels of hybridization. >>
Darinka Czischke, TUDelft (in: ‘Collaborative housing and housing providers: towards an analytical framework of multi-stakeholder collaboration in housing co-production’, International Journal of Housing Policy, 2017)
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<< On peut distinguer trois types d’habitat groupé 167 , chacun matérialisant un degree d’engagement du groupe d’habitants:
Dans l’habitat groupé en promotion classique, les futurs habitants ne participent à la conception du logement que dans les cadres définis par le maître d’ouvrage, qui est aussi la personne à l’initiative du projet.
Dans l’habitat groupé réalisé par délégation de maîtrise d’ouvrage, le groupe prend l’initiative et trace les grandes lignes du projet, mais la maîtrise technique est ensuite assurée par un professionnel.
Dans l’habitat groupé en autopromotion, le groupe garde une maîtrise complète sur tout le processus de construction et de promotion immobilière. Il écrit le cahier des charges à respecter, pilote les travaux, voire construit lui-même le logement. La division en trois
catégorie est en réalité purement théorique, car la dernière option est celle choisie par tous les groupes d’habitants. En effet, la conception de l’habitat est un élément constitutif de l’habitat groupé, et les groupes d’habitants s’impliquent tous activement dans cette tâche. >>
Alberto Colin, communication politique, Université de Lyon, F (dans : ‘L’habitat groupé, expérimentation sociale entre singulier et collectif’, mémoire de séminaire, 2011)
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<< One of the key tensions […] was ‘the build versus the community’. Some people in the group, at least, perceived that a key tension appeared to be between the emphasis on the design, project management, construction and completion of the physical infrastructure […] of the cohousing group, and the emphasis on a shared way of living. […]
The over-riding constraint that appeared to help to cause this tension […] was the instrumental imperative to make timely decisions in order that the financial budget was not over-run. […] The co-ordination methods used in relation to the aspects and dimensions of this tension involved a strong focus on instrumental rationality, as well as a range of different explicit values. […]
Three of the significant and overlapping methods utilised in this respect were:
a) Member involvement in an iterative design process, with account taken of the group’s espoused values;
b) The attempt to structure inclusive and constructive discussions within and across the group; and
c) The generation and development of a process group to help with this tension. >>
Mark Westcombe, independent consultant, lecturer at Lancaster University, founder of Lancaster cohousing, with Dermot O’Reilly , Lancaster University, UK (in: ‘ Value tensions and dynamics in the co-ordination of a self-transformational group’, 2018)
Samenhuizen citaten 