Cohouses Are Smaller

Cohouses Are Smaller

Vol. 8, No. 1), you trace the average size of single-family housing from approximately 1,100 ft² (102 m²) in the 1940s–1950s to an average of 2,150 ft² (200 m²) today. Over the past 10 years, the concept of Cohousing—the creation of small communities of private households with shared common facilities—has become established in this country. There are now approximately 50 of these intentionally designed, mutually supported communities nationwide, ranging in size from less than 10 to 40 or more units.

In these communities the average house size (as determined by Graham Meltzer in 1996) is 1,320 ft² (123 m²), with an additional 170 ft² (16 m²) portion of the shared common facilities, which average 2,000 ft² (186 m²) to 8,000 ft² (743 m²) in size.

In your “Checklist for Creating Small Houses that Work” you appropriately include Cohousing as one strategy that contributes to creating smaller houses. This table [at right] shows how much smaller housing can be when organized in this fashion.

Bruce Coldham, Architect

Amherst, Massachusetts