One afternoon in spring 1985, Erik B. Jantzen, director of the Danish State Building Institute, asked me (Chuck) for an English translation of “Bofǽllesskab” (the Danish word for cohousing) by the very next morning. I spent the entire night considering 35 possible options, including the awkward acronym CRD (Community Residential Development).
“Bofǽllesskab” literally means “living together communities." The English prefix CO- means “together.” The dictionary lists out many CO-words (40-50, depending on the dictionary), such as cocreate, convivial, cooperation, and community. It seemed natural that “cohousing” belonged among them. All the other options I thought up that night were much less elegant.
In the morning, I called Mr. Jantzen: “I have the word: COHOUSING.” He replied, “Okay, thank you,” and they went with it. When Katie woke up later, she exclaimed, “Oh my, you can’t just make up a word!” I responded, “Well, I just did, and they’re using it as of today.”
I trademarked the word for The Cohousing Company in 1988. Later that year, the book Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves was published.
Ten years later, the trademark was dropped to allow the model cohousing projects built by that time to define cohousing. Since then, the successful book Cohousing Communities: Designing for High-Functioning Neighborhoods has come to define the word with these six characteristics:
Participation. Co-developed, co-designed, and co-organized with the future resident group. First and foremost, the future residents are an integral part of creating the future community.
A private home, but also extensive common facilities that supplement and facilitate daily living. Common facilities are perceived as an extension of each resident’s house and supplement each home. There must be practical reasons to bring people together. Common meals must be held at least once a week. There is no more timeless means of sustaining community than breaking bread together.
Designed to facilitate naturally oriented community interaction over time. Not auto-oriented.
Residents own their own homes and almost entirely manage the community. Each cohousing community decides how to organize itself. The residents are responsible for the work and play of managing their lives and neighborhood. Every household is on the board.
No hierarchy in decision-making. Cohousing is about cooperation rather than a type of ownership. And, as it turns out, cooperation transcends ownership type. Cohousing generally relies on consensus.
No shared economy. Unlike that of the commune or sometimes a co-op structure, cohousing community members do not share personal income, except as required to maintain the premises and other investments that they choose by consensus or a similar process.
While the characteristics of cohousing are globally relevant, I suggest in the new book Taking Cohousing to the World (currently in draft form) that most cultures may benefit from developing their own word for cohousing, to personalize its meaning and boundaries—to know where the beginning and the end are. As the new book's premise suggests, this process will allow each culture to answer the questions: “Who are we, who do we want to become, and how do we get there?”