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From co-housing projects to climate-positive districts, the city is leading the way in affordable, eco-friendly living

Sustainability sells. Nearly two-thirds of UK buyers say they are keen to purchase a sustainable home, with lower energy bills the biggest attraction, according to a recent survey by volume housebuilder Redrow.

But there’s a lot more to sustainable living than cheaper bills, says Paul Chatterton. Chatterton, 52, a professor of urban futures at the University of Leeds, is a founding member of pioneering Leeds co-housing co-operative Lilac (it stands for Low Impact Living Affordable Community), which put the city on the sustainable housing map more than a decade ago.

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I remember the moment I couldn’t deny my climate anxiety any longer. It was September 2017, and an ethereal, orange-red light was shining through our window, landing at the feet of my then-six-month-old baby. The beauty of the scene was eclipsed by the source of the light—a sun obscured by wildfire smoke blown in from the Eagle Creek Fire that was raging in the Columbia River Gorge to the east of where I lived in Portland, Oregon. The scene of my baby amidst a seeming apocalypse highlighted a dual crisis: raising a child in a dying world.

The feeling was overwhelming, and it resulted in me beginning to focus my writing toward the intersection of climate change and disaster preparedness. My anxiety prompted me to prepare by stocking up on food and water and creating go-bags. Preparing alone felt futile. But in early 2024, during a freak ice storm that blanketed the city in a sheet of ice for several days, when I could barely walk across the street to deliver bread to my elderly neighbor, I remembered a conversation I’d had with a colleague and friend Noelle Studer-Spevak a couple years before. She told me about living in a cohousing community. Initially I’d dismissed the concept; it made me think of living with roommates. But after that winter storm, I wondered: would these communities be more prepared for an uncertain future because of a shared agreement to support one another?

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Nauset Construction has completed Hager Homestead, New England’s first senior cohousing community.

Located on a 15-acre parcel of land that was home to a former local dental practice and residence on King Street in Littleton, just 25 miles northwest of Boston, the thoughtfully designed neighborhood includes 26 one- and two-bedroom homes across five distinct buildings.

Residents enjoy shared amenities such as a renovated barn with a woodworking shop, a community garden, and 13 acres of open space with nature trails. The walkable location offers easy access to Littleton Center, Town Hall, and the public library, and is just a five-minute drive from the commuter rail station.

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Earlier this year, Angela Maddamma, 72, loaded all her belongings into her car. She drove from a house in suburban Richmond, Virginia, where she had lived for 20 years, to her new life about five hours west, in a senior cohousing project called ElderSpirit.

Cohousing communities are “thoughtfully designed neighborhoods with private homes” arranged around common areas, where people may gather and build relationships with their neighbors, according to the Cohousing Company design firm. Cohousing is typically multigenerational – of the roughly 170 total cohousing units in the US, most are home to people of all ages, from young families to seniors. But about 12 are senior-specific.

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Houston’s East End neighborhood will soon welcome a bold new experiment in housing in the next couple of months, one dedicated to communal space and curing the epidemic of isolation plaguing modern America.

Called CoHousing Houston, the development occupies a property at 114 Delmar St. that consists of 33, individually-owned units built around a central courtyard. This layout isn’t much different from a modern apartment complex, but there are architectural deviations and governing principles that gently nudge the residents toward in-person interactions.

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Nauset Construction has completed Hager Homestead, reportedly New England’s first senior cohousing community. Located on a 15-acre parcel of land that was home to a former local dental practice and residence on King Street in Littleton, MA, 25 miles northwest of Boston, the neighborhood includes 26 one- and two-bedroom homes across five distinct buildings.

Challenges for the construction team included providing structural reinforcement to stabilize the historic Common House — which serves as a community center — during excavation for the surrounding new buildings, maintaining strict erosion control measures to protect the wetlands from runoff and simultaneously constructing five unique separate buildings.

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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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