Cohousing Communities:

designing for high-functioning neighborhoods

Reviews

“Durrett has been down the design road, many times. He's made that path by walking it. This book describes the path. It shares the stories of those who Chuck has walked alongside. The book is an invitation into possibilities. We can design homes and neighborhoods and communities, together. I'm from Haystack Heights. I know this journey.”

- Bob Stilger, Founder of New Stories

“A friend turned me onto this book as I have always been interested in the concept of cohousing, but have never had a real clear and comprehensive guide on how to go about it. This book provides a clear process on what is needed, how to get there, the design phase and building community to getting the project constructed. There are many case studies and images from the several communities outlined and created by the author. I think there is at least one picture on every page! Inviting millennial authors to co-create this book is wonderful and brings the different perspectives and creativity from younger generations.”

- Nicole Weaver

“Charles Durrett and his colleagues have created the ultimate resource for someone committed to the idea of cohousing. They use a phrase in the title that appeals to me: High Functioning Neighborhoods. This book a thorough discussion of variations of cohousing, it makes clear the social realities that make cohousing and any neighborhood a high functioning community. Even those who do not intend to build a cohousing or a planned community could benefit from the insights and the examples Durrett, et al., provide. Richly illustrated with photos from many communities, architectural drawings and charts of planning processes and other vital information, this book provides all a cohousing team would need to get a new project started.”

- Karen Altergott Roberts, Consultant and Educator in family, aging, community development and faith

“In his newest book, “Community Enhanced Design,” Charles Durrett offers a comprehensive, engaging, and beautifully illustrated account of how building a strong sense of community can be incorporated into the design of any new housing project. From initial inception, to the creation of a fully functioning neighborhood, he convincingly argues that architectural design always has a social impact, either enhancing or detracting from the felt-sense of being with and belonging to others.

It goes without saying that we are social animals. More than anything else, we seek to belong with others, to share our lives with them, and derive a sense of who we are from our place within a larger social order. Yet our everyday physical environments seldom reflect any conscious awareness of this most basic human fact. As a master of “social architecture,” Durrett offers a powerful antidote to the pervasive sense of social isolation that characterizes many, if not most of our urban and suburban surroundings.

Along with his architectural team, Durrett has been instrumental in the creation of more than 50 cohousing communities and in this book he shares everything he has discovered along the way about successful community building. For the past 16 years I have lived in one of these communities and was privileged to experience firsthand his wealth of wisdom about the intimate relationship between architectural design and human intimacy. From the initial planning meetings, to city approval, to move-in, and through many years of neighborly living, the guidance our community received from the Durrett team helped us launch, maintain, and grow a vibrant village, one in which the word “home” came to signify, not simply an individual living space, but the community to which we all belonged. As someone who has benefitted immensely from his guidance and support, I give this book my highest recommendation.”

- Carl Hall

 “As a housing advocate and keenly interested in building a better community, I've found this book to be a treasure chest of information. Mr. Durrett has put his decades of experience as a champion of co-housing and community based architecture into a book that touches on so many of the details on how to build functional neighborhoods. It is a good blend of concepts and principles accompanied by case studies and beautiful photographs. It inspires one to believe that villages where people from many generations and walks of life can actually live happily together in close knit communities where meals are shared, children run through the commons, and people actually care about one another. Bravo! A must have for those who are passionate about urban planning, placemaking, and building community.”

- Jonathan Collier

“This book is essential for architects and people who want to create functional communities where people are able to feel supported by their neighbors, have fun with them and also have the privacy they need. It is also essential for people designing senior living projects. I am in the process of creating a Cohousing community where I can age gracefully in place. I was initially inspired by the corporate owned retirement community my parents moved into, one of those three tiered places with independent living, assisted living and nursing home. I liked that there were activities for them and opportunities to socialize. What I didn’t like was the food choices. And as time went on there were other things I didn’t like. When my mom became ill, there was a total lack of support and she was asked not to dine with her “friends” because of her declining mental acuity and health. Hardly any of her “friends” visited her when she was home bound in her last few months. It was very sad.
The communities that Charles Durrett and his associates design are designed for people to feel included in the community. In his other books and trainings, he teaches how to set up agreements and boundaries ahead of time so people know what they can expect from their neighbors in support but the basic architectural aspects of designing a community for a high level of functionality and interaction is the first step.
This book is filled with photos, plans and advice to help architects and community designers to design the kind of communities our world needs. I highly recommend this book!”

- Janae Stephens

“Architects design buildings, and Chuck Durrett designs good ones. But the title of his new book, Community-Enhanced Designs, describes his larger vision and purpose: to design buildings with and for communities that will live in them.

‘If it doesn’t work socially, why bother?’ he asks. Getting people out of their homes for more ‘life between the buildings’ fosters community. Separating garages and homes lets people walking to/from their cars encounter each other. Residential space can be smaller if a larger “Common House” encourages people to spend more time together.

But Durrett doesn’t impose a design. He holds group design sessions with everyone involved in the project because he believes the people who will live in the buildings should help design them. How far apart should your front doors be? Is here, or there, a good place for an outdoor conversation? Want a garden house – where should it be? How many people might want to have meals together? How do you want to decide questions after you move in? What do you want in your community? Working together to make dozens of decisions helps form a community, give it ownership. It worked for us.

Community-Enhanced Designs has lots of pictures, checklists, floor plans, people doing things together. Don’t miss this one.”

- Carolyn W

“This is another must-have book for anyone interested in designing and building a new community - and ultimately building a better society in the process. The timing is perfect for this guidance by Charles Durrett. Wow we need his help and experience. Thanks again Chuck for sharing your knowledge and experience!”

- Siwash Rock

“I’ve lived in a cohousing community designed by Charles Durrett for 25 years and I love it! This book is about how to create places with a strong sense of belonging, identity and accountability. There are lots of site plans, common house designs and many wonderful pictures of people working and playing together. This book contains a wealth of details about what exactly makes a community high functioning – from designing places for neighbors to meet spontaneously, keeping the cars on the periphery, private kitchen sink placement (in front of windows on the street) to ideal common house table width for conversations. If you want to know how to strengthen relationships with community-enhanced design, get this book.”

- Miriam Evers

“This was such an inspiring book about sociable neighbourhood design. There were lots of great colourful images of finished communities, features, sketches and workshop processes. This all really helped to convey the importance of people being involved in co-designing where they want to live and setting a vision and values with others to achieve this. Thanks for sharing so many years of experience in one book.”

- Angela Vincent

“Whether it's intergenerational cohousing or senior cohousing, Chuck Durrett is the go-to guy for design and development. He has written several previous books - all about cohousing. With Community-enhanced Design, he goes beyond cohousing to reach the root of the issue and the reason for having cohousing in the first place: COMMUNITY. Through this book, young architects, and developers with community-first vision can take Chuck's ideas and apply them to a multitude of projects, including affordable housing, multi-family housing, senior housing, etc. It's truly a book for the ages.”

- Sara Geber

“This book, in my view, is amazing. It clearly demonstrates how to build cohousing and other high-functioning neighborhoods, information that is essential, but delineated nowhere else. No book since “Housing as if People Mattered” (1985) by Clare Cooper Marcus has even attempted to achieve this. Here is a book designed to make all of the lives of all involved richer, especially the future residents.

“Community Enhanced Design: Cohousing and Other High Functioning Neighborhoods” contains concrete examples culled from a lifetime’s worth of projects. Communities that have actually been conceived of then designed and then built. Thinking and theorizing are both good and necessary things, but we need these examples to ground our thoughts in the life experiences of those who have gone before. That is to say, stories always teach more than rules.

What we have come around to calling social purpose is built up with the bricks of individual decisions and here we have a visual catalog of the best of those decisions.”

- Ben Davies

“It was in the 1980s when I first heard Charles Durrett and Kathryn McCamant, two extraordinary architects, describe how they were building housing that encouraged residents to create communities. I said to myself “I want that!” I had been avoiding living in the suburbs all my life. I remember standing in the window of my bedroom in Pasadena, California, as a young woman, looking out on the empty asphalt street that ran through my lovely but silent neighborhood and vowing never to live in such a place again.

But in hearing Kati and Chuck describe their vision, It became clear to me that with the right physical design, we could build housing that reversed the deleterious effects of the automobile (and now the digital revolution) on human connection. How to design such living environments is now detailed in a marvelous new book by Durrett titled, Community-Enhanced Design: Cohousing and Other High-Functioning Neighborhoods.”

The book is a step-by-step description, with photographs from multiple communities, of how to use architectural design in living spaces to “help us create a better-functioning society,” as the author writes. He does not overstate the goal; I know this from 20 years of living in such a community.

Instead of empty asphalt outside the window, you see neighbors walk down a pathway.
Instead of living next door to people who are strangers, you know them
Instead of dining alone or only with immediate family, you share meals with a community of choice
Instead of dying alone, you are surrounded by friends.

In many ways, this high-functioning neighborhood recreates in modern form the ancient patterns of human villages. It restores better social connections in a culture that has driven us toward an atomized world focused primarily on the individual consumer.”

- Patricia McBroom

“if you are interested in cohousing this is the book to read. Chuck is the architect who has the knowledge and experience to design and build sustainable communities where neighbors interact and know each other well. i live in a senior cohousing community designed by Chuck and experience everyday the ways in which his architectural design brings our community closer together. His dozens of case studies showcase his success and innovative approach to building community.”

-Suzanne Marriott

“It shouldn’t be a surprise that Charles Durrett would write a book and share his strategies on architecture with a sociology focus. His entire career developing cohousing is bringing people together in a culture of community and mutual benefit. This is the guidebook for architects, community founders, and residents creating their next housing projects for renters, owners, and the formerly homeless. His program of a dozen workshops is a participatory process with future residents building trust, confidence and pride with every decision which holds the community together after move-in. I’ve seen his projects and felt the connection and comfort radiating from the structure of the homes. I admire his generosity sharing the nuggets and gems of his successes and only hope this knowledge is broadcast and widely implemented at this time when society desperately needs community. He is a visionary in his field.”

- Janet Palmer

“Durrett has been down the design road, many times. He's made that path by walking it. This book describes the path. It shares the stories of those who Chuck has walked alongside. The book is an invitation into possibilities. We can design homes and neighborhoods and communities, together. I'm from Haystack Heights. I know this journey.”

- Bob Stilger

“In Latin they call it a “Magnus Opus.” In Danish we call this a “A Work of Consequence that is Long Overdue.” I know that Charles promised his Danish mentors that he would do everything that he could to not let Americans Americanize bofaellesskaker (Cohousing). Though he started by designing model cohousing communities in the U.S. like the first one in Davis California, followed by Cotati, Berkeley, Grass valley, Nevada city and many others laid out in this book, the process in many new cohousings in U.S. has been watered down. This book does not just list model projects, Chuck also lays out the process, the details, the intent, and the product and everything necessary to accomplish a high-functioning neighborhood—every thing necessary to make a quality community. In this book Chuck is saving the integrity of cohousing in America.”
- Hans Rasmusen, Denmark

“The comprehensive detail in this book blew me away. It is a valuable resource to own for anyone wanting to build, design, or develop a higher functioning community. The design of a well functioning community is more than about buildings it needs a multi dimensional approach.

The author interweaves the subtle features of physical design and the wisdom of building connection in community that enrich relationships and vibrancy in community. Never has it been more timely to know how to eliminate the alienation we feel today in this present world. I am inspired and encouraged by reading these detailed examples, graphs, pictures and stories of how to make this happen.

With the generous number of examples this is an amazing resource for anyone seeking to develop in the new world. The experience and wisdom are apparent from this leader in the industry.”

- Diana F Sullivan

“I have lived in cohousing for 25 years and have gone through the collaborative design process before. Yet the ideas and experience demonstrated here is still very valuable and relevant, both for professionals and community members involved in design. This book is not a light and quick read, but more of a trustworthy and insightful reference.”

- Howard K. Staples

“Cohousing communities offer a solution for America's "Missing-Middle" housing shortage, especially in small rural towns. Chuck Durrett is the original guiding light of this trend.” - David Mims

“This latest book by Chuck Durrett and his team clearly states the benefits of designing with the whole community in mind instead of the individual. With many photos and stories and with language that comes across as a conversation with the authors, a path forward in societal design is made available.”

- Scott Bird

“Many of us live in an American landscape where engrained developer profit models and zoning laws conspire to create mile upon mile of sprawling development where there's not much encouragement or reason to connect with our neighbors. Against this backdrop, there is a great need to consider and enact different models for how to build safe, fun, interactive places for ourselves and our children and their children to live. Chuck Durrett stumbled upon a CoHousing community in Denmark as a student, and observed that it seemed like the residents found it safe, fun, and interactive. Chuck has spent his architectural career bringing the CoHousing model to the U.S. and thinking about how to create communities that support a better quality of life. He and his young collaborators have a lot to say on this topic, and this book is an invaluable resource going forward, for everyone involved in some way in the world of community development”

- Richard

“Five stars are simply inadequate to convey the value of this intergenerational book on "community-enhanced design" by Chuck Durrett and his five millennial co-authors. They compress into its beautifully illustrated pages a wealth of architectural and site plans, along with detailed workshop scenarios, that show just how to proceed step-by-step in creating small communities -- whether multigenerational or mainly for seniors -- that work for each and every one of their members. The process ensures success due to its involvement of every participant at every stage of the planning, design and construction, and the book furnishes loads of tips on how to cut costs so that the units are very affordable. There are three main sections: the first dealing with intergenerational neighborhoods and the second with senior neighborhoods (each with highly specific design examples), and the third dealing with the nitty-gritty of what makes cohousing work and keeps it affordable.

This book should be the starting point for any small group that wants to take charge of their environment and their future, and that is ready to learn from professionals in their field who have assisted hundreds of such groups to achieve their own unique goals. I cannot recommend it highly enough.”

 -  Alfred North

“As a documentarian who directed a film about cohousing in America, I want to endorse this important book and its author. Like all of Charles Durrett's books, this one is informative, inspiring and immediately relevant. Durrett shows how cohousing helps build neighborhood connections and solidarity at a time when we are sadly divided as a country. For many Americans, it may also be a cure for the chronic loneliness we see, especially among elders, and especially in the wake of Covid-19. I've had the pleasure of visiting many cohousing communities--including senior cohousing-- and seeing for myself the wonderful qualities of cohousing that Durrett writes about. As one of two pioneers of cohousing in America, Durrett is uniquely qualified to present the concept and does so in a clear and understandable fashion in this volume. This is a book that should appeal to many audiences, including schools and colleges, but especially to people who are looking for new more cooperative and sustainable ways to live. Durrett was my guide in learning about how important cohousing is. Read this book and let him be yours as well!”

- John de Graaf

“Charles Durrett and his colleagues have created the ultimate resource for someone committed to the idea of cohousing. They use a phrase in the title that appeals to me: High Functioning Neighborhoods. This book a thorough discussion of variations of cohousing, it makes clear the social realities that make cohousing and any neighborhood a high functioning community. Even those who do not intend to build a cohousing or a planned community could benefit from the insights and the examples Durrett, et al., provide. Richly illustrated with photos from many communities, architectural drawings and charts of planning processes and other vital information, this book provides all a cohousing team would need to get a new project started.The Intergenerational Neighborhood Design section combines practical insight with beautiful examples from all over the world. The Senior Neighborhood Design section suggests some unique design variations of the general model, including SROs, planning format and affordability issues. The Rest of the Story wraps the entire book in a review of the practicality of this form of design.”

- Karen Altergott Roberts

“What a wealth of wisdom this book presents! As a 25-year resident of cohousing and author of Reinventing Community and other books, I appreciate the work that went into Community-Enhanced Design, and the book’s central theme: let’s build and live in neighborhoods-on-purpose where trust and support can flourish!”

- David L. Wann

“Another great book by Charles Durrett to compliment his already existing series. Mr. Durrett has dedicated his life to providing people with realistic solutions towards community living in an age where our technological advances, intended to bring us together and make our lives easier, are actually isolating us more than ever as we look for meaningful relationships from our screens. These real life solutions create multigenerational, as well as senior co-housing neighborhoods that are affordable, energy efficient, and contemporary. If you are planning on creating or participating in a cohousing community, this is a must read!”

- Anke A.

“Truly, truly, especially for those of us who care about folks with disabilities, this book is a MUST-HAVE. Inclusion in the community drives the quality of life. Tremendous community-oriented wisdom is packed into the pages. This book describes the complete process from start to finish. Learn from those who have gone before you. Seriously. Get this book to save yourself from some headaches and build neighborly neighborhoods for folks of all abilities.”

- Dan

“I have just started reading this, but I love how it helps people to re-imagine what community can be. So many suburban developments have the common building, but not the sense of community. This is the kind of thoughtful housing development that non-profits and for-profit entities should be looking at to expand housing, affordable and market-rate. Not everyone has to have formal co-housing to integrate some of these concepts into new builds or renovations. Can't wait to read more. I wish this were in print---lovely photos and an inspiring book.”

- Julia Tell

“This is a great read, chock full of useful and practical information for anyone looking for guidance in designing, building and/or maintaining a community within a community. Chuck designed ours, River Song Cohousing in Eugene, Oregon - see attached rendering - and construction is just now getting underway so we couldn't be more excited!”

- Will Dixon, AIA

“Charles Durrett is by far the most experienced architect of Cohousing and building community. Community is the key to happy and satisfying living. The environment to live life to a ripe old age is key to our society becoming more viable and enriching and that is what we need right now. No doubt in my mind that Charles Durrett (who along with Kathryn McCamant were the first architects to bring the concept of Cohousing to the US from Denmark many decades ago and have been instrumental in building these intentional neighborhoods across the US and Canada) is the most knowledgeable and experienced person qualified to write this book.”

- Mk Middleton