Co-housing

Abstract

This chapter is dedicated to the phenomenon of co-housing. It opens with a historical framework of contemporary co-housing’s evolution, from the first north European cases to the most recent ones around the world. To deal with this specific “micro” dimension, a theoretical support based on functionalist perspective is used: the chapter highlights how the environment generated in co-housing projects is able to provide supporting relationships that less and less are generated in the contemporary society and that, less and less, official institutions are able to provide. Within this theoretical framework, the fundamental characteristics, the features that define co-housing projects, but also the main differences and four categories that can help in describing the projects are presented.