Cohousing: New Film Out, Book to Follow

NEVADA CITY, CALIFORNIA / AGILITYPR.NEWS / February 18, 2020 / Cohousing: An Unexpected Component to the Homelessness Solution

New Film Out, Book to Follow

NEVADA CITY, California, February, 18, 2020 — Cohousing, the communities designed for a sustainable, community lifestyle, with private homes clustered around common facilities, is gaining traction for a number of reasons—some expected and some surprising. “While I love the traditional cohousing communities that I’m working on and especially, the Port Townsend Community of Quimper Village, the topic of my new book, it’s really the legacy of cohousing that I now look to. We are increasing cohousing awareness and other applications for coliving. We are especially proud of helping solve homelessness, a legacy application of cohousing principles.”

Durrett designed and oversaw construction of Valley View Low Income Housing in American Canyon, California—a small town in Napa County. “This was a competitive design and the other applicant designs looked more like boxed storage for humans, rather than homes. We were able to take cohousing principles and design small footprint homes with some central core facilities. These 34 cottage-like homes gave people more than a home, literally lifting them off the streets. Valley View provides a pathway to healthy interaction through the common house and shared spaces.”

Cohousing is also getting some added buzz from the rapid adoption of coliving as an urban housing solution, as well as clustered tiny home communities The US Cohousing Association reports that there are currently 165 established cohousing communities with another 140 forming. Durrett himself is working on a dozen projects in the United States and Canada, each at different stages of development.

New Book

Durrett sees the importance of documenting the process communities take in his new book, Quimper Village: How 45 Seniors Made a New Neighborhood to Suit Their Real Needs. Here’s a quick view from the introduction,

“This book is a unique and important story of how one group, Quimper Village, accomplished, start to finish, one community. Of course, each community is unique and we get that. But sometimes it’s a good idea to know exactly how some other group did it and then consciously and deliberately deviate from that clear point of departure…This is the story of their voyage. How they prepared, how they launched, the voyage itself, how they landed, and how they settled.”

Cohousing Film

The film "The Best of Both Worlds—Cohousing's Promise”consists of cohousing residents first person stories. This 27-minute documentary is now set to air on KVIE PBS and also is headed for the Earth Day Film Fest in Chico on March. KVIE.org, Sacramento PBS station air times are: 3/18-7pm; 3/20-4pm; 3/21-7:30am; 3/22-6:30pm. Charles Durrett will be speaking in Chico and Paradise during March 14, 2020. Learn more about the film and sign up for scheduled screenings at www.cohousingfilm.com. See the trailer here: https://youtu.be/IkdDUi4Pl_c

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About Cohousing

Cohousing is a planned community consisting of private homes clustered around shared space. While each attached or single family home has traditional amenities, including a private kitchen, there are shared spaces that reflect each community—often with shared community kitchen, lodge house, gardens and outdoor spaces. The legal structure is typically a homeowner association or housing cooperative. 

About Durrett Architects/Charles Durrett

Durrett and his team at The Cohousing Company/Durrett Architects, have designed more than 50 (fifty) cohousing communities in the United States and around the world. His work has been featured in Time Magazine, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, Architecture, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and many other publications.

Learn more at cohousing.com

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Photo captions: Valley View Senior Housing is an affordable housing community in American Canyon, California. The Napa county development drew heavily on cohousing principles and brought veterans out of homelessness. This community also recently received a Green Point Platinum Rating, recognizing many sustainability qualities built into the community.

“The Best of Both Worlds—Cohousing’s Promise” is a 27-minute documentary on cohousing, as told by those living in cohousing communities. See the film trailer here: https://youtu.be/IkdDUi4Pl_c