Author Archives: Brian Johnson

Brian Fernandes recalls growing up in India surrounded by kin. “We lived with extended families – grandmother, grandfather, uncles, auntie, all in the home.”

Now, the 57-year-old Torontonian is planning to replicate that collective life for his own retirement. Single and childless, in 2015 he bought a 17-acre property near Bancroft, Ont., with the dream of turning it into a home for 40 other LGBTQ seniors. [more]

Rooted Northwest in Western Washington is creating a co-housing community based on regenerative agriculture. Founder Dave Boehnlein speaks with Oregon Grapevine host, Barbara Dellenback, about farmland preservation, solving the loneliness epidemic, and making a difference through lifestyle.

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The Dhamma Pad was a shared co-living house for people dedicated to the practice of meditation, located in the heart of Berkeley, CA.

The residents of this six-bedroom house frequently hosted community gatherings of 50-100 people in its two large communal spaces, as well as regular group meditations every Tuesday and Thursday night for 10-30 people. After a shared meditation and dharma discussion, everyone who came was treated to a delicious, healthy, lovingly-made vegetarian dinner.

In its early years, having completed at least one 10-day Vipassana meditation course taught in the tradition of S.N. Goenka was a requirement for living at the Dhamma Pad, but later the requirement was loosened so that housemates only needed to be generally interested in meditation.

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Future residents are taking an active role in shaping and designing their homes and shared spaces

A new co-housing community where residents share everything and live in energy-efficient homes is coming to Nothstowe. Two groups of future Northstowe residents are currently working with architects and developers from TOWN and Mole Architects, to design a new kind of neighbourhood which is shaped around community.

The future residents gathered in person to take part in a codesign workshops to help them take an active role in shaping the design of their future homes and shared spaces – from kitchens and gardens to courtyards and car-free streets.

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“You can see the end in sight,” one future resident says of the environmentally conscious cohousing community in McCandless.

The spring sun strikes a hilly, green corner of La Roche University’s campus. It’s quiet, save the sound of a few cars on this calmer portion of Cumberland Road near UPMC Passavant – McCandless.

Over a stream and up its western bank, people drift into the Sisters of Divine Providence’s Kearns Spirituality Center. Inside, a group of 30-some settle into cafeteria seats as three musicians strike up a tune.

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Cohousing, where families live in private homes clustered around shared facilities, is common in Europe and increasingly popular in the UK, the US and NZ.

The outcome of a tender for a block of land in North Watson has great potential to demonstrate it in Canberra. I do hope it catches on in the capital.

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Central New Jersey is not immune to two of the major problems afflicting people across the United States: loneliness and a housing shortage. A new initiative in the Hightstown/East Windsor area aims to address these issues by developing a collaborative neighborhood while offering a model for people to help plan their own affordable and friendly living spaces. The Rocky Brook Cohousing project brings together residents, planners, and advocates with a shared vision for a more connected, sustainable future.

As this project gets off the ground, it will be the first cohousing community formed in New Jersey. At this stage, Rocky Brook Cohousing has enlisted Charles Durrett, architect and advocate for affordable, sustainable design, as a consultant on the project. Durrett has designed more than 50 cohousing communities in North America.

The story is here.