From the needs to the desing principles of cohousing: The flexibility of living in community

The traditional forms of housing no longer meet the needs of manypeople. The current economic crisis takes us very unprepared to tacklethe current social, political and economic challenges. The need forliving places able to support common services, calls for new socialstructures that are meant not as an alternative to, but as an evolutionfrom the traditional family.The purpose aims to present a critical reflection on social housing,
departing “from the needs in order to get to the design principles”
of the composition of a housing form based on sharing: cohousing.This form of intentional community characterized by the integrationof shared spaces for social interaction and common services that arebased on self-government by consensus, is proposed as a model thatsupports the feeling of belonging to and responsibility towards thelocal community, while preserving the privacy and independence ofeach individual household.
After having analyzed cohousing projects from around the world,we carry out to select the 47 most representative projects with a
methodology supporting us to identify the most valued features,summarized in application design principles.This paper aims to describe the meaning of cohousing, studying thefactors that have always influenced its spread, the most commonfeatures, methods and procedures for its working. Based on experiencesfrom the global landscape, comparing their different elements, we have
come to theoretical principles that dene the design principles which
are useful as guidelines for inhabitants, designers and architects todesign the living and services shared spaces and the management.