Introduction to Cohousing Course: Launching Your Community

DESCRIPTION

What is Cohousing, why it is meaningful, and how do you go about creating your own community? This 10-hour course will use discussion, presentation, participatory activities, and reflection to help you answer these questions. The course will give you the foundational knowledge of cohousing design, development, and living to get you on your way to making your ideas and dreams into reality.

COURSE SYLLABUS:

All the classes are held on Wednesdays, at 5:30pm MT from 01/14 to 02/04 and 11:00am MT on 02/11 & 02/18.  

1. Introduction, learning goals and cohousing motivations
   • January 14^{th @} 5:30 pm MT (1hr)
2. Cohousing Patterns & Practices. Site Search
   • January 21^{th @} 5:30 pm MT (2hr)
3. Marketing your project, Decision Making and Membership process
   • January 28^{th @} 5:30 pm MT (2hr)
4. Critical Path, Legal Structure, Financing
   • February 4^{th @} 5:30 pm MT (2hr)
5. Affordability & Design matters
   • February 11^{th @} 11:00 am MT (2hr)
6. Conclusion
   • February 18^{th @} 11:00 am MT (1hr)

Participants will be able to:

• Plan and launch the development process for their own cohousing community.
• Understand the social and physical characteristics that make cohousing successful.
• Implement a proven roadmap to get where you want to go with your project.
• Explore how cohousing deepens personal relationships and enhances sustainability.

Cohousing is about community, so participants will be invited to engage with the content, course-leaders, and other participants in a variety of formats. Participants will also be invited to expand their learning with out-of-class activities. We recognize there are diverse learning styles so participants will choose how they wish to engage.

Instructors

Mathilde Berthe

Mathilde is an architectural designer and the co-founder of Studio Co+hab. She moved to the USA from France to focus her career on Cohousing and has worked with McCamant and Durrett Architects, who introduced the concept of Cohousing in America. She also helped develop Habitat & Partage, a cooperative that aims to facilitate the emergence of Cohousing projects in France. Between France and the USA, she has visited and contributed to many communities, exploring the relationship between design and the social structure of communities. 

Receiving her Living Future Accreditation has strengthened her commitment to bring people together to build a more “socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative” future.

Erik Bonnett

Erik is a registered architect with deep expertise in sustainability and participatory design. His experience includes facilitating integrated design of groundbreaking LEED and net zero carbon projects, while at Rocky Mountain Institute. His work focuses on integrating the economic, environmental, and social components of sustainability with a focus on equity and empowerment. Erik taught sustainability from an interdisciplinary perspective at Montana State University and has published research on cost optimization of energy efficiency. He has worked to design and also found cohousing communities across the United States. Erik is passionate about collaborating with cohousing communities and helping them turn their aspirations into reality.