Cohousing creates family villages inside city
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Members of a cohousing community from left, Ayres Freitas, Doug Cooper, Janet Schuster, Danelle Ardell, Stefani Danes and David Elliott practice paddling Friday at Millvale Riverfront Park.
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Eight households in and around Pittsburgh are on the hunt for land together. They're angling for the East End since most live there now.
As part of the national cohousing movement, they are seeking the life that got away when families went nuclear -- when neighbors had each other's backs, pitched in, put mom-and-dad eyes out on all kids and took care of the old folks.
"I try to explain it as the old-fashioned idea of neighborhood," said Stefani Danes, an architect who has researched cohousing as a member of Pittsburgh Cohousing, the first group in the city to join the movement.
Cohousing originated in Denmark and has been gaining American adherents since the early '90s, after publication of the book "Cohousing" by architect authors Charles Durrett and Kathryn McCamant.
Diana Leafe Christian, a national expert who lives in a cohousing eco-village near Asheville, N.C., said at least 116 communities are established and roughly another 150 are in the stages of finding and purchasing land.
"I think we have an innate longing for connectedness," which may be missing from a lot of lives, she said. The movement aims to get it back, to rebuild the old societal constructs and, in many cases, with net-zero energy use.
Each household is privately owned. Members mutually own a community house where guests can stay, with a big kitchen for regular shared meals, maybe a wood shop or art studio.
Pittsburgh Cohousing is a merger of two groups, both about 4 years old. Members have looked at properties in Homewood, Garfield, Lawrenceville, East Liberty, the Hill District and Hazelwood.
"The idea is to have 25 to 30 households, but with 12 committed, we can start," said Wendy Hardman of Swissvale. "We need more people. We have a variety: older couples, a young couple, a couple of gays and singles, and interest from a woman in grad school."
The group includes avid gardeners, a photographer, a computer programmer, a staff development consultant, an accountant and two architects.
First Published July 31, 2010 12:00 am
