THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS GRAND VALLEY CHAPTER EXPLORES COHOUSING AND TYPES OF HOUSING THAT BRING BACK AN OLD-FASHIONED SENSE OF NEIGHBORHOOD

CHAPTER HOSTS STEVE FABER AND MARTY MORGAN OF NEWBERRY PLACE COHOUSING DEVELOPMENT AS PART OF ITS REGULAR PROGRAM SERIES OCTOBER 19 IN GRAND RAPIDS

As part of its monthly program series to bring awareness to issues impacting the quality of life in West Michigan, The Grand Valley Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Grand Valley) will present ”Cohousing: Bringing Back and Old-Fashioned Sense of Neighborhood“ on Thursday, October 19, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at DeVos Place in downtown Grand Rapids. The public is invited.

Cohousing is a type of collaborative housing in which residents actively participate in the design and operation of their own neighborhoods. Private, resident-owned homes contain all the features of conventional homes, but residents also have access to common facilities such as a common house, green spaces & gardens, and playground areas.  Cohousing residents are consciously committed to living as a community. The physical design encourages both social contact and individual space.  Cohousing communities are usually designed as attached or single-family homes along one or more pedestrian streets or clustered around a courtyard. They range in size from about 10 to more than 50 residences, the majority of them housing 20 to 40 households. Regardless of the size of the community, there are many opportunities for casual meetings between neighbors, as well as for deliberate gatherings such as celebrations, clubs and business meetings.

The common house is the social center of a community, with a large dining room and kitchen, lounge, recreational facilities, children’s spaces, and frequently a guest room, workshop and laundry room. Communities usually serve optional group meals in the common house at least two or three times a week. The need for community members to take care of common property builds a sense of working together, trust and support. Because neighbors hold a commitment to a relationship with one another, almost all cohousing communities use consensus as the basis for group decision-making.

The cohousing idea originated in Denmark, and was promoted in the U.S. by architects Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett in the early 1980s. The Danish concept of ”living community“ has spread quickly. Worldwide, there are now hundreds of cohousing communities, expanding from Denmark into the U.S, Canada, Australia, Sweden, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria and elsewhere.

In a cohousing community, you know who lives six houses down because you eat common meals with them, decide how to allocate homeowners dues and gratefully accept a ride from them when your car’s in the shop. You begin to trust them enough to leave your child with them. You listen to what they have to say, even if you don’t agree with them at first, and you sense that you, too, are being heard.

For almost 150 years, members of The American Institute of Architects have worked with each other and their communities to create more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings and cityscapes.  The AIA supports governmental policies, programs, and incentives that promote healthy neighborhoods.

AIA Grand Valley’s ”Cohousing: Bringing Back an Old-Fashioned Sense of Neighborhood“ program will be held on Thursday, October 19, 2006 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at DeVos Place located at 303 Monroe Avenue in downtown Grand Rapids, MI.  The program’s events begin at 6:00 p.m. with a catered reception; the speaker’s program will begin at 7:00 p.m. Reservations for the evening are required.  The cost for attending the program is $10 for non-AIAGV members.  Admission for AIA Grand Valley Members and Students is free. To make reservations for the program call Jeff Vanden Bosch at 616-308-8986 or visit http://www.gvaia.org.  The program is sponsored by Monsma Marketing Corp. and Laidlaw & Morgan.