Some Americans have started questioning the traditional dream to land a secure job, get married, have 2.5 kids and buy a house. We’ve moved away from the community-driven villages of yesteryears in the pursuit of independence and success.

What if we could return to a community where neighbors looked out for one another? Where the domestic and emotional weight of living life was shared?

Cohousing communities seek to remedy these problems by reinventing the way we think about housing.

First, this housing trend looks to neighborhood design to create shared spaces that fosters an authentic sense of community. Cohousing architects utilize shared pathways to shared sites to encourage interaction (Williams, 2005). Something as simple as opting to place car parking on the edges of the community forces neighbors to walk by one another each day (Williams, 2005).

Countries, states and communities that have committed to this model have started seeing positive results. In fact, research shows these natural social interactions “build trust between residents” and creates a stronger sense of connectedness (Williams, 2005). This exchange strengthens social capital within the community, which leads to lower crime rates, improved health and better relationship to local government (Williams, 2005).

Second, this neighborhood design recognizes the benefits of sharing and depending on others, while maintaining the importance of ownership and independence. One type of cohousing units is called a pocket neighborhood (Henderson, 2011). These communities are often built of independent, private dwellings for the family unit and contain shared spaces such as a community house, where neighbor can gather and foster relationships.

Cohousing neighborhoods are poised to start picking up steam in Springfield.

Earlier this year, Springfield City Council approved a proposal to develop a “pocket neighborhood” on the east side of town with construction to begin in spring (Abreu, 2017). In addition, just last week, Springfield received its first tiny home to be a part of the Eden Village, a planned neighborhood created by the Gathering Tree for chronically homeless people (Gurney, 2017).

Journalist Courtney Martin discussed this shift in the American Dream in her 2016 TedTalk, sharing her experiences in a cohousing community.

“The ‘new better off,’ as I've come to call it, is less about investing in the perfect family and more about investing in the imperfect village, whether that's relatives living under one roof, a cohousing community like mine, or just a bunch of neighbors who pledge to really know and look out for one another.”

While cohousing may not be the right choice for everyone, we all have the ability to stop, slow down and get to know our neighbors. If each person strives for intentional hospitality, the return to the “imperfect village” may be in our reach.

     What makes a good porch? 

Question: what are the characteristics for your dream-porch? 

"Making a good porch is both an art and a science." -Chapin

He notes that the social life of a pocket neighborhood revolves around the front porch. Because everyone walks in the neighborhood, it's easy to strike up a conversation.

It seems to me, though, that most of the coolest porches I have seen in regular neighborhoods are back porches rather than front porches. I could be wrong, but I think front porches are stiff and formal places, whereas back porches are casual and comfortable.

What do you think? ... What makes a good porch?

I'm currently reading Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small-Scale Community in a Large Scale World (2011/Taunton Press) (book) (website) by Ross Chapin. The forward is by Sarah Susanka, author of The Not So Big House.

Pocket neighborhoods are clustered groups of neighboring houses or apartments gathered around a shared open space — a garden courtyard, a pedestrian street, a series of joined backyards, or a reclaimed alley — all of which have a clear sense of shared stewardship.

Scale: Pocket neighborhoods are about restoring small-scale communities. Recreating and revitalizing the neighborhood has long been the goal of community activists, many of whom are motivated specifically by the problem of isolation, which Pocket Neighborhoods talks a lot about, as well as by other social problems.


Pocket Neighborhoods is a beautiful 200 page book, almost coffee-table-book size, with full color pictures of what pocket neighborhoods look like on every page. As I read it I look forward to blogging about the high points and interesting concepts on a section-by-section basis.