🚀 go-pugleaf

Dear Folks:

We are developing cohousing in Northampton, MA and we're looking for
members. We hold introductory meetings every month. For more information
please call 413-247-0064 or email cornell@cs.umass.edu. You can also look
at our web page at <http://www.cohousing.org/specific/northampton.html>.
If you're not familiar with cohousing you can look at
<http://www.cohousing.org/> or
<http://www.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Alternative/Intentional_Communities/>
for more info. Following are short paragraphs describing cohousing in
general, and Pathways specifically.

Matt Cornell, cornell@cs.umass.edu, <http://www.cs.umass.edu/~cornell>


"What is cohousing? Private homes, shared amenities, and neighborly
living! A village for the 21st century."   -- Commonweal Cohousing Group


* About Pathways CoHousing:

Pathways CoHousing came together September of 1995. We are aiming to have
20 households along with the common house. We are in the process of
purchasing approx. ten acres of land and have just hired an excellent
project coordinator and architect. We are planning to use a bungalow style
of architecture and are becoming familiar with the Christopher Alexander
books. Our goal is to be no more than three miles from downtown
Northampton. Northampton is in Western Massachusetts and is a diverse
community. It is a historically rich New England college town. This town
has many interesting layers, including a thriving downtown area, and a
broad variety of cultural events.


* About Cohousing:

Cohousing is the name of a type of collaborative housing that attempts to
overcome the alienation of modern subdivisions in which no-one knows their
neighbors, and there is no sense of community.

It is characterized by private dwellings with their own kitchen,
living-dining room etc, but also extensive common facilities. The common
building may include a large dining room, kitchen, lounges, meeting rooms,
recreation facilities, library, workshops, childcare.

Usually, cohousing communities are designed and managed by the residents,
and are intentional neighborhoods: the people are consciously committed to
living as a community; the physical design itself encourages that and
facilitates social contact. 

The typical cohousing community has 20 to 30 single family homes along a
pedestrian street or clustered around a courtyard. Residents of cohousing
communities often have several optional group meals in the common building
each week.

This type of housing began in Denmark in the late 1960s, and spread to
North America in the late 1980s. There are now around twenty cohousing
communities across the continent, with many more in progress.