 |
www.hopedance.org
|
| <back | home Cohousing at EarthHaven Ecovillage by Lee Warren We’ve envisioned from the beginning living with a group of deeply connected adults who communicate well with each other, share parenting to some degree, grow food together and live in a way that allows us to thrive within our common ecological and spiritual values. A tall order for our modern world of speeded-up, high-tech, disconnected lives. Five of us got together three years ago to take our best shot at making that vision a reality. With many years of community living and several tries at similar ventures under our belts, we set out to build a cohousing project at Earthaven Ecovillage, an already established intentional community in North Carolina. We were all drawn to Earthaven because of its focus as an Ecovillage dedicated to communal living, educational programs, democratic government and ecological values. Earthaven, which is 10 years old, is on 300 acres of wooded land in the Black Mountains, just east of Asheville. Sixty people currently reside on the land with a goal of 150 to 200. Our group of five was drawn to each other because, though Earthaven laid a great foundation for our dream, we wanted to go a step further and create an even more intentional neighborhood. Our group cooperates in nearly every aspect of our process. For the last three years, we’ve met weekly and have made decisions t ogether using consensus, a non-hierarchically-based decision-making model; we’ve financed the project collectively; and we plan on co-managing the neighborhood into the future. The project, called "Village Terraces Neighborhood" - named so because it is near the center of our village and because much of our neighborhood agricultural land will be on terraces to accommodate our mountainous environment - is one of seven neighborhoods within Earthaven. Although there is much space to build, and other Earthaven members have chosen single family homes, we have chosen the cohousing model for our project. Cohousing affords us the ability save resources and land by living more densely and also allows us to create an environment where we are more physically connected to each other. Cohousing is, according to the Cohousing Association of the US, "a type of collaborative housing that attempts to overcome the alienation of modern housing 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 house may include a large dining room, kitchen, lounges, meeting rooms, recreation facilities, library, workshops, and children’s space. "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." So far we have succeeded in the first phase of our vision. As of this writing, our first building is nearly finished. We are thrilled to be living in the manifestation of our dream. Our long-term plan for the neighborhood aspires to four buildings housing 20 to 30 adults plus children. Private apartments for individuals or families will be small - approximately 200 square feet per person - and common facilities will be used for much of such everyday needs as cooking, bathing, gardening, hanging out with friends, etc. Private apartments allow for bedroom, office, and minor kitchen space but, most of all, provide privacy and alone time for individuals and families, away from group activities. It is often said that the success and sustainability of community living has a direct relationship to the integrity of the private space. Here we hope to do both. Provide lush, active and open communal spaces, as well as private spaces with integrity. In addition to our attention to social design, we’ve built our house following natural building techniques, local materials guidelines and renewable energy models. All of the wood used in our majestic timber frame structure was felled, milled and joined here on our land by our friends and neighbors. The timbers reflect the mixed woods of our second growth forest - poplar, oak, black locust and pine. The exterior of our building displays our local clay, used in the making of earthen plaster which was applied by our loved ones, kids and adults alike, during a weekend-long plaster party, a tradition here at Earthaven. Recycled windows and doors from a local college building don’t match perfectly but saved us money and have enabled a beautiful and perfectly usable resource to not end up in the landfill. Our house, along with the whole of Earthaven, is energy self-sufficient. Our electricity comes from the sun and our photovoltaic panels; and our water is all from our land, in the form of numerous springs, creeks and rainwater. We sometimes struggle with decisions between cost effectiveness and toxicity or the "foulness of a material" as one member calls it. For example, we will often choose a more expensive local product over something shipped from another continent, using slave labor that is "cheaper" on the market. It has been a delicate balance of our values and our pocketbooks. The decision we seem the most proud of, however, has been to hire, with the exception of one outside neighbor, all community members, including ourselves, for labor. This keeps money within the community where it has an exponential effect of benefiting us all and growing our village economy. The costs to live in our building are quite reasonable compared to other cohousing projects and certainly compared to buying and building on a piece of land almost anywhere in our area. Our intention has been to keep housing affordable by building small and sharing both resources and common space as much as possible. For our low-end housing - small space without kitchen facilities - we have projected $55,000 per person or $80,000 for a couple or small family, including Earthaven fees (membership and site fees). Fees obviously rise if more space or more amenities in private apartments are chosen. With our first building done, we have been attracting people who are interested in joining us and helping to manifest our vision. This 4000 square foot building houses ten adults and five children, as well as Red Moon Herbs, a local business run by a member of our neighborhood. While our current population consists of adults in their 30s and 40s with kids under ten, we envision an extended family "pod" where parents and children are central but not exclusive, as we hope to grow into a multi-generational group with older folks, and singles as well. One very specific criterion we have for new members of our neighborhood is a commitment and willingness to be engaged in a process of clear communication and ongoing open-heartedness. We’ve found it vital to continuously clear hard feelings and create opportunities to go deeper with each other around both appreciations and resentments. In addition to the in-the-moment clearings, we’ve set up a formal monthly "heart-share" meeting to facilitate this process. Time and again we find it keeps our group more connected with each other, and we hope it makes new people feel safe to enter an up-front and honest group process. We’re in the beginning phases of planning our next building. We have the fortunate situation of more demand for our neighborhood than we have space. We seek conscious, active, mature, independent, financially stable adults to join us in building our future. If you know of some, please send them our way. Lee Warren, an eight-year resident of intentional communities, resides at Earthaven Ecovillage and Village Terraces Neighborhood. She wears many hats, as do most residents of forming villages, including accounting and finances, carpentry, mediation, organization and administration. <back | top^ |