Brooklyn Co-Housing Moving Closer to Reality?
Co-ops, until the recent condo building boom, were once a dominant form of housing here in New York, but many found they weren’t actually that, you know, cooperative. So a Brooklyn couple is trying to bring another form of housing to the borough, a Danish model of communal living called co-housing. So says Sarah Ryley…
Co-ops, until the recent condo building boom, were once a dominant form of housing here in New York, but many found they weren’t actually that, you know, cooperative. So a Brooklyn couple is trying to bring another form of housing to the borough, a Danish model of communal living called co-housing. So says Sarah Ryley in the Real Deal. Individuals own their own units in co-housing, like co-ops, but there are shared communal spaces, usually including kitchens and dining areas where residents can eat together. Most American co-housing communities are in rural areas, but in February Alex Marshall incorporated Brooklyn Cohousing LLC. He’s got about 25 interested households, and they’re looking for property between $15 and $35 million for the group. Is Brooklyn ready for such communal living, and will the market provide?
Living Closely With Neighbors [The Real Deal]
Co-housing Sketch. Photo by matthewsargent.
my understanding of this kind of living is that everyone has their own kitchen, in their own unit, and can also choose to use and share the communal spaces. that combination of private and shared space is what, to me, makes this a workable idea. seems like it could be a really great lifestyle.
I don’t think the idea of communal living is to “foist” chores on your cult-partners. That will get you voted off the danish cart.
Scandinavian culture is so alien to anything in Brooklyn.
It just doesn’t go.
I do love the idea of people living in styrofoam cubes held up by giant nails.
“CO-Housing?”
Yeah, I did that, but it was called “living in the college dorms” in my day.
The kitchen is not my room of choice. If I could foist off cooking and dishwashing on someone else I would but I’ve learned that tiny cat paws cannot hold dishes and the cuisine was limited to little pointy-nosed raw animals so I preserver.
Hey, if this is your kind of thing–cool. If there’s anywhere where this can work, it should be NYC. More power to ’em and blah, blah, blah.
That said, there would be NO WAY ON THIS PLANET that I would share a kitchen with my neighbors (who are wonderful people, but still). I have enough trouble getting my partner to pick up after himself.
sam- Obviously it’s an idea that works for a lot of people – in Denmark and here seeing as he has 25 families interested. It may not be for you but why do you resent if it works for others?
All I want to know is who will wash all those dishes? Even with a dishwashing machine someone still has to leoad it, lol.
Good for them. Not an idea suited to me, but if it works for them, why not.
Oh please, Danish communes, spare us.
Sounds a lot like the polygamist Mormon communitites in Utah and Texas.
Sharing a kitchen with other families?
Yeah, that would really work in Brooklyn.
between the vegans, the koshers, the glutten-adverse and the plain eccentric, I see little harmony.
Americans find it had enough to share a home with one person.
This is a recipe for a spike in the boro’s homocide rate.
Wow.