Author Archives: Brian Johnson

Intentional communities have deep roots in Vermont, where people have long experimented with new ways of living together. While most of the back-to-the-land communes of the 1970s have disappeared, their ideals — connection, cooperation, conservation — still resonate. They have evolved into today’s cohousing communities — a structure where members own their homes but co-own the land, share infrastructure, and live collaboratively to varying extents.

Most of these communities are planned unit developments (PUDs) under Vermont law. A PUD is a zoning designation that permits — and often requires — clustering of homes on shared land to protect open spaces and woodlands. In some cases this clustering makes a project eligible for an extra unit beyond what standard zoning allows.

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Seattle’s housing scene is defined by high prices and shrinking apartments, leaving many people feeling both financially squeezed and socially disconnected.

Cohousing offers an alternative.

It’s rooted in sharing and intentional community. Residents build spaces together, with private units clustered around common areas. Daily life is designed for connection.

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After years in the making, the Rachel Carson EcoVillage at Providence Heights in McCandless is now under construction — and the public is being welcomed to check it out.

A multi-generational cohousing neighborhood, the sustainable community is southwestern Pennsylvania’s first ecovillage. Scheduled to be completed in the first half of 2026, the village — named after famed environmentalist Rachel Carson — consists of 35 private units ranging from studios to four-bedroom homes.

According to its developers, the entire community is designed to the highest standards of energy conservation, durability and air quality — creating an 80% savings in energy usage.

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Certain crises are decades in the making. Housing is one of them. An epidemic of loneliness is another.

While the single family home remains a fixture of the American dream, some people are challenging that picture.

Cohousing is a style of neighborhood where residents have their own private homes but share common spaces and buildings. 

Advocates of cohousing say their vision could help fight loneliness while building more housing on less land—which could be good news for the climate, too.

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Because including kids shouldn’t mean losing everyone else.

Last summer, a friend invited my husband, our two kids, and our nephew — ages 6, 8, and 9 at the time — to the opening of Upstate Art Weekend, a sprawling outdoor art festival. The air was buzzing: artists welcoming strangers into their studios, dancers warming up under trees, friends reuniting in pop‑up galleries. It was the kind of setting that usually screams “no kids”: unspoken adult rules, fragile pieces on pedestals, long conversations. And yet, there we were with three kids in tow.

We’ve been told that Americans don’t party anymore. And in the rare cases we do, it’s often siloed into micro-generations: parents with parents, singles with singles, kids with kids. Intergenerational gatherings feel increasingly rare and with good reason: parenting is more intensive, childcare networks are thinner and privatized, families live farther apart, and, post-COVID, home can feel safer than venturing out. Then comes the practical side: Will the kids eat what’s served? Will they vanish into screens? Will they be a royal pain in the butt? 😬

I’ve noticed that when the kids are present at our gatherings, we tend to oscillate between two extremes — designing the event entirely around them or ignoring them altogether.

We’ve been holding a question live in our own family: Can you meaningfully involve kids without centering them at an intergenerational gathering?

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Danish communal housing is building a better society. What can it teach us?

A ping-pong ball strikes me plumb on the forehead. No one else seems to notice, so I continue eating my fiskefrikadeller (fish cake) while the residents of Grønne Eng explain the benefits of communal living. “You can always find someone to look after your kids,” says Lene Skytte Hvid, mother of Niels, seven, and Bjørn, four, who are currently mucking around at the table-tennis table nearby and are my prime suspects for the ping-pong ball. “One of the main attractions for me was that my son would grow up with other kids his age to play with,” adds Anne-Sofie Helms, a digital journalist, and mother of six-year-old Louie.

A bearded older gentleman sitting opposite me at our long table introduces himself. Niels Kryger, 77, is a retired educational anthropologist. “The noise level can be a challenge,” he shouts, as I pass him the fish cakes. “But it’s young life, so…” He tells me Grønne Eng has far exceeded his expectations. “A good atmosphere. Good people.”

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A few years ago a group working with the New Hope Resource Center in Colbert, about 7 miles north of the North Division Y, started studying housing insecurity in north Spokane County.

This housing and homelessness task force of sorts looked at the pressures on affordable housing in the northern part of the county. Most of New Hope’s clients were living in manufactured homes, which make up most of the affordable housing stock there. As pandemic eviction restrictions ended, many residents in those communities started to see doubled or tripled “lot rent” from the landlords who own the land their homes sit on.

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In my social circles, becoming a parent is seen as a gigantic sacrifice. You lose sleep, time with friends, time for hobbies. You’ll probably have to move to a less desirable neighborhood to afford the extra space for your kid. If you’re the one carrying the child, you’re ‘destroying’ your body and jeopardizing your professional goals.

But what if it didn’t have to be this way?

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Come see Heartwood Commons and all it has to offer. You’ll tour our  community of 36 individually owned, energy efficient homes and our Common House. You’ll learn about the comfortable, connected, active and engaged lifestyle Heartwood Commons offers. You’ll meet some of our owner/residents and see the 4 remaining homes we have for sale. And, we’ll answer all your questions about this amazing community that was designed to create connections and support healthy aging in place. 

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I’ve been telling this one story a lot in my talks, but realize I never shared it right here at home. If you’ve heard it, cool – here’s an easy way to share it with those who you think might benefit or get a kick out of it. And if you haven’t, well, it’s become core to my approach to life, politics, activism, economics, and taking this world back from the systems devised to disconnect us from one another, and reality itself.

Let’s do it as a thought experiment – change the names so we can protect the innocent.

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