Living Apart, Together: Cohousing as a Site for ICT Design

This paper presents qualitative studies of cohousing, a model where individual homes cluster around common space, share some meals weekly, and make community decisions together via consensus. It analyzes 80 descriptions of cohousing community websites to reveal the values common to cohousing, as well as site visits to three cohousing communities in the USA. These consist of tours, attending multiple common meals, and interviews with residents to gain insight into cohousing practices and experiences. The goal of this work is to understand how cohousing is lived and structured with an eye towards considering this model of living from an HCI perspective. Keeping that in mind, this paper concludes with a discussion of the relevance of cohousing to existing and emerging trends in HCI such as civics, technologies for building community, and how cohousing might unravel the concept of a "smart home."