How to make your senior years healthy, safe, social, and stimulating. "Architect and author Chuck Durrett's recently released book Senior Cohousing Handbook comes at a time of high interest in greening, sustainable housing and affordable living concerns. Durrett's new book is a comprehensive guide for baby boomers wishing to continue vibrant, active lifestyles." - EPR Real Estate News "Make your senior years safe and socially fun with the idea of senior cohousing and a book on the topic that shows how seniors can custom-build their neighborhood to fit their needs. This is housing built by seniors, not for them, and emphasizes independence and social networking. Any library strong in gerontology or social science and many a general lending library needs this. - James A. Cox, The Midwest Book Review "As a Baby Boomer, I've joked for a few years that we'll all end up living communally again because Social Security will be broke...This is one of the better ways to envision it."-- Sacramento Bee No matter how rich life is in youth and middle age, the elder years can bring on increasing isolation and loneliness as social connections lessen, especially if friends and family members move away. Senior cohousing fills a niche for this demographic—the healthy, educated, and proactive adults who want to live in a social and environmentally vibrant community. These seniors are already wanting to ward off the aging process, so they are unlikely to want to live in assisted housing. Senior cohousing revolves around custom-built neighborhoods organized by the seniors themselves in order to fit in with their real needs, wants, and aspirations for health, longevity, and quality of life. Senior Cohousing is a comprehensive guide to joining or creating a cohousing project, written by the US leader in the field. The author deals with all the psychological and logistical aspects of senior cohousing and addresses common concerns, fears, and misunderstandings. He emphasizes the many positive benefits of cohousing, including: Better physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health Friendships and accessible social contact Safety and security Affordability Shared resources Successful aging requires control of one’s life, and today's generation of seniors—the baby boomers—will find that this book holds a compelling vision for their future. Charles Durrett is a principal at McCamant & Durrett in Nevada City, California, a firm that specializes in affordable cohousing. He co-authored the groundbreaking Cohousing with his wife and business partner, Kathryn McCamant.
Bl.a. om bofællesskaberne: Trudeslund, Gyndbjerg, Bakken, Stavnbåndet, Sol og Vind, Overdrevet, Jerngården, Jystrup Savværk, Mejdal I & II, Jernstøberiet, Tornevangsgården, Drejebænken, Bondebjerget m.fl., samt bofællesskabernes historie
This book presents 50 case studies of contemporary co-housing projects spread all over the world to show how communities of shared living have become a global phenomenon that can serve as a tool to promote social and urban sustainability. By presenting evidence that shared housing experiences are capable of revitalizing sterile urban fabrics and promoting social sustainable practices, the volume situates co-housing experiences as microscale responses to the macroscale challenges posed by environmental degradation and the decline of communitarian ways of living. The volume also reviews the most famous typologies of shared living in different parts of the world across human history. By analyzing historical experiences in different regions of Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania, the author shows that living together is part of a historical culture of sharing that is being rediscovered all over the world by people who activate public spaces, work in shared offices or live in contractual communities. The Co-Housing Phenomenon – Environmental Alliance in Times of Changes will be of interest to both professionals and scholars involved in urban design, urban planning and architecture, especially those in the field of sustainable urbanism. It will also be a valuable resource for public agents and civil society organizations dealing with housing, social, environmental and sustainability policies.
How to research, visit, evaluate, and join the ecovillage or sustainable community of your dreams. Finding community is as critical as obtaining food and shelter, since the need to belong is what makes us human. The isolation and loneliness of modern life have led many people to search for deeper connection, which has resulted in a renewed interest in intentional communities. These intentional communities or ecovillages are an appealing choice for like-minded people who seek to create a family-oriented and ecologically sustainable lifestyle—a lifestyle they are unlikely to find anywhere else. However, the notion of an intentional community can still be a tremendous leap for some—deterred perhaps by a misguided vision of eking out a hardscrabble existence with little reward. In fact, successful ecovillages thrive because of the combined skills and resources of their members. Finding Community presents a thorough overview of ecovillages and intentional communities and offers solid advice on how to research thoroughly, visit thoughtfully, evaluate intelligently, and join gracefully. Useful considerations include: Important questions to ask (of members and of yourself) Signs of a healthy (and not-so-healthy) community Cost of joining (and staying) Common blunders to avoid Finding Community provides intriguing possibilities to readers who are seeking a more cooperative, sustainable, and meaningful life. Diana Leafe Christian is the author of Creating a Life Together and editor of Communities magazine. She lives at Earthhaven Ecovillage in North Carolina.
Cohousing offers an end to the isolation of the single family suburban home. Balancing community and personal privacy, cohousing is a chance to create a modern village in an urban or rural setting. Residents own their own homes and can gather in common areas to share meals and socialize. An increasingly popular form of housing in both Europe and North America, cohousing addresses and alleviates many of the demands and pressures of modern life - everything from day care to aging at home is easier with the help of your neighbors. As pioneers in the development of cohousing in North America, Chris and Kelly ScottHanson offer individuals and new groups a wealth of information and practical hints on how the process works. The Cohousing Handbook covers every element that goes into the creation of a cohousing project, including group processes, land acquisition, finance and budgets, construction, development professionals, design considerations, permits, approvals and membership. This revised and updated edition includes an expanded marketing chapter as well as a foreword by Gifford Pinchot. A source of comfort and inspiration for those who want to create their ideal community, The Cohousing Handbook is a ground-breaking and practical guide to building a better society one neighborhood at a time - a must-have for the growing number of people who want to create a cohousing community.
A brilliant exploration of the natural, medical, psychological, and political facets of fertility When Belle Boggs's "The Art of Waiting" was published in Orion in 2012, it went viral, leading to republication in Harper's Magazine, an interview on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, and a spot at the intersection of "highbrow" and "brilliant" in New York magazine's "Approval Matrix." In that heartbreaking essay, Boggs eloquently recounts her realization that she might never be able to conceive. She searches the apparently fertile world around her--the emergence of thirteen-year cicadas, the birth of eaglets near her rural home, and an unusual gorilla pregnancy at a local zoo--for signs that she is not alone. Boggs also explores other aspects of fertility and infertility: the way longing for a child plays out in the classic Coen brothers film Raising Arizona; the depiction of childlessness in literature, from Macbeth to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; the financial and legal complications that accompany alternative means of family making; the private and public expressions of iconic writers grappling with motherhood and fertility. She reports, with great empathy, complex stories of couples who adopted domestically and from overseas, LGBT couples considering assisted reproduction and surrogacy, and women and men reflecting on childless or child-free lives. In The Art of Waiting, Boggs deftly distills her time of waiting into an expansive contemplation of fertility, choice, and the many possible roads to making a life and making a family.
A new book by the author of A is for Activist is a rhyming, boldly illustrated vision of a better world. When you go to a march And raise your sign high You'll make people smile who thought you were shy And you'll make people wonder, does that kid really know why? You DO know of course That's why you are there You're there to say STOP! What's happening's not fair Then they say, we know what you're against End poverty stop war... But okay then what are you for? Oh! What are we for! That's my favorite question And I'm sure it's yours too Because you pay attention You have so many answers And so many options And so many solutions that you want to impart The only hard question is where does one start? Oh, The Things We're For! is a celebration of the better world that is not only possible, but is here today if we choose it. Today's kids are well aware of the many challenges that they face in a world they are inheriting, from climate change to police violence, crowded classrooms to healthcare. Poetically written and beautifully illustrated in Innosanto Nagara's (A is for Activist) signature style, this book offers a vision of where we could go--and a future worth fighting for. Oh, the Things We're For! is a book for kids, and for the young at heart of all ages.