This is a quote from Ann Zabaldo who develops and markets cohousing communities. Day in and day out, this is what she hears from people looking for homes. But most people can't find this because the number of people looking for such communities is far greater than the land and money available to build them. Vacant land is sparse in urban areas and development is expensive in rural areas.

Still, many people are building cohousing from scratch, in all areas of the world. They are designing new green homes and condominiums that encourage interacations between neighbors rather than protect against them. Communities are child-friendly and support life long residency -- from birth to death. What can be done to help cohousing communities form and sustain themselves?

Most people have connections with family and jobs where they live. They prefer not move from their current homes. Or they can't afford the time it takes to build the perfect green home from scratch or to make all new friends. They need to use the resources they have, and build slowly while they continue working, raising children, and caring for their extended family. They want better lives, but not entirely new ones. What can they do to develop community where they live now? What can they learn from cohousing?

This site is about building community in our current neighborhoods, in existing coops and condos, and in new neighborhoods like cohousing.

• How do we design and convert wastful and inefficient buildings into environmentally and economically sustainable homes?

• Where do we begin to re-create human scale, walkable communities?

• How can a coop or condo become a community?

• How do we transform a suburb into a small town?

• Can we return to community schools?

• How do we keep cars from dominating our landscape and our lives?

• How do we develop commuities from scratch? And design them to be affordable?

• And what can we learn from other communities, new and old?

• What resources are available to help us do any or all of these things?

There is a lot more I could say but basically, that's it: building communities, plain and simple. This is a new site and we have more ambitions than information posted but with any luck at all, the site will grow.

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Sharon Villines, Editor and Publisher More Information