Design for gender equality - the history of cohousing ideas and realities

Today’s development of alternative types of housing with communal spaces and shared facilities, called cohousing, has been influenced by utopian visions, practical proposals and implemented pro-jects far back in the past. This article traces the driving forces behind the various models of communitarian settlements, cooperative housekeeping, central kitchen buildings, collective housing and collaborative residential experiments while focusing specifically on the design and gender aspects of these models. An emphasis is given to feminist arguments for cohousing, as well as a discussion of the patriarchal resistance against various forms of housing and living based on equality and neighbourly cooperation. The article includes an analysis of the relief of house work burdens and of the possibility for men to be courageously domesticated through this type of housing. The main research methods comprise analyses of literature and the researchers’ own practical experiences of cohousing. The authors claim that cohousing in Scandinavian and some other countries has contributed to a more equal distribution of responsibilities for house work. However, the number of people living in cohousing is still too small to influence the gender segregation of labour markets. It is furthermore concluded that design factors, such as the quality of shared spaces, easy access to common rooms and indoor communication, are important for the smooth functioning of cohousing.Peer reviewe

Saving by Sharing – Collective Housing for Sustainable Lifestyles in the Swedish Context

In Swedish cohousing one of the goals is to increase access to attractive indoor space by abstaining from some private space in favour of common rooms. Therefore cohousing consti­tutes an example of saving by sharing. Facilities shared are common meals, playrooms for children, hobby rooms, guest rooms, saunas and exercise rooms. Space may be saved both by reducing the normal apartment and by accepting fewer private rooms than in non-collective living. The paper shows how cohouses may be designed to promote both a sense of community and saving through the sharing of resources. Common spaces should be connected to apart­ments through indoor communication, located where residents pass frequently and provided with glazed walls in order to stimulate spontaneous use. Spatial organisation may influence the level of social control, which in turn may constitute a determining factor for pro-environ­ment behaviour. In the paper examples are given of communal activities in various types of cohouses in Sweden. The question is raised how to promote cohousing in a society dominated by neo-liberal doctrines, and how to save by sharing more generally in the urban landscape. The main methods used to write this paper are analysis of literature and practical experi­ence of the author. The author has carried out research on collective housing since 1964. Since 1996 he lives in a cohouse in Stockholm and since 2006 he has been the chairman of the national Swedish organization Cohousing NOW, which keeps regular contact with 50 cohouses and 10 starter groups for cohousing.QC 20130111</p

Housing in the Apartheid City of Former South Africa

In this chapter a description is given of the South African "Bantu" housing policy during the reign of the white minority regime. The racist character of apartheid housing and town planning is analysed. Motives are searched behind the various types of housing developed for blacks in urban areas. It is shown how South Africa in the 1950s, at the cost of a repressive system, became the only African country to eradicate the shanty towns. It is also shown why the shantytowns came back in the 1980s. A special analysis is made of South African housing as a result of modernist doctrines, and to what extent this doctrine contra-dicts the apartheid ideology of ‘separate development’.QC 20130109</p