Once you've done some reading about cohousing and decided it may be for you, you're going to want to find like-minded folk to help make it happen. As this site develops, we'll offer more materials here for your use - particularly on the thorny aspects of explaining to officialdom what cohousing is and why they might like it.

Dates:

• 8-10 February
• 18-20 April
• 13-15 June
• 12-14 September
• 14-16 November

The Threshold Centre is one of the handful of cohousing projects established so far in the UK. While many exploratory cohousing groups have met for several years without getting started, The Threshold core group formed in February 2004, and bought Cole Street Farm in November 2004. In this weekend, you can experience life in a fledgling cohousing community, and learn how to create a cohousing project.

The content will be tailored to the needs of participants. Whether you are just starting your exploration, or in the perplexing thick of it, and whether you're an interested individual or already part of a group, we aim to help you with your questions. The weekend is led by two of the six founders of The Threshold Centre, all with many years' experience of sustainable and community living.

The E-cohousing Development Company works with developers and residents to create environmentally and socially sustainable communities. The residents are given the opportunity to design, plan and then manage their own neighbourhood helped by experienced professionals.

To read more and get in touch with us, please visit the E-cohousing Company website.

By

Take a deep breath, you are about to begin constructing something beautiful, that you can forever enjoy and be proud of. You are also about to take a lead managing a multi-million pound construction project; and steer a multitude of households through conflicting priorities and difficult decisions. You can do it: there's thousands of fulfilled residents and neighbours in hundreds of successfully completed cohousing projects around the globe. But, for each group that gets to move in to their community, five fail to realise the dream.

Q) What is Cohousing?

A) A pedestrianised housing estate, common house used for regular meals, self contained units, no shared business, resident design input, non-hierarchical & consensus decision making.

People need community and privacy. Cohousing is a way for people to live together so that they can have as much community and privacy as they want. The concept is simple and immediately comprehensible. It is the way forward for human beings to live together in a safe, independent and caring neighbourhood. It is a revolution that is beginning now. We will no longer just choose a new house when we move, we will join a new community.

Max Comfort offers a wonderfully detailed (and at times very sobering) account of the development of Springhill Cohousing in Stroud...

1. How we got started

In 2000, David Michael successfully negotiated to buy 2 acres of land close to the centre of Stroud and on a steep, south-facing slope. He put down £150,000 returnable deposit from his own funds and began to spread the word about the project. By the Autumn of 2000 he had attracted some ten households, all of whom purchased 5,000 £1 shares in the Company intending to buy the land and chose which house type they were going to purchase. The choice was 5, 4 or 3 bed houses, and 1 and 2 bed flats. At the last minute the vendors asked us to go to sealed bids and we ended up paying £550,000 for the site. We exchanged contracts but David negotiated a long period to completion, which gave us time to gather the funds for the site purchase.

1. Memorandum and Articles

This is a Company Limited by Guarantee. All leaseholders are directors of the company. Associate membership is available for people not holding a lease for the property but being resident. Associate membership is available for prospective residents.

We spend a large amount of time and effort trying to improve the way we reach decisions. Here are some extracts of documents on consensus which we have found helpful.