{"id":1863,"date":"2025-09-15T12:06:45","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T18:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/?p=1863"},"modified":"2025-09-15T12:06:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T18:06:46","slug":"the-observer-happier-families-new-ways-of-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/?p=1863","title":{"rendered":"The Observer: Happier families: new ways of living"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Danish communal housing is building a better society. What can it teach us?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Gr\u00f8nne Eng explain the benefits of communal living. \u201cYou can always find someone to look after your kids,\u201d says Lene Skytte Hvid, mother of Niels, seven, and Bj\u00f8rn, four, who are currently mucking around at the table-tennis table nearby\u00a0and are my prime suspects for the ping-pong ball. \u201cOne of the main attractions for me was that my son would grow up with other kids his age to play with,\u201d adds Anne-Sofie Helms, a digital journalist, and mother of six-year-old Louie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bearded older gentleman sitting opposite me at our long table introduces himself. Niels Kryger, 77, is a retired educational anthropologist. \u201cThe noise level can be a challenge,\u201d he shouts, as I pass him the fish cakes. \u201cBut it\u2019s young life, so\u2026\u201d He tells me Gr\u00f8nne Eng has far exceeded his expectations. \u201cA good atmosphere. Good people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[more<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe6P8V-u3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1865,"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions\/1865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}