Cohousing Open House Weekend is your invitation to step inside real communities across the country and experience the beauty and practicality of this innovative housing model. Whether you're just beginning to explore the idea or you're actively forming a group, this is the perfect opportunity to learn, connect, and be inspired.

Cohousing neighborhoods are intentionally designed to balance privacy with shared spaces, connection, and collaboration. On Open House Weekend, participating communities will open their doors to visitors, offering guided tours, Q&A sessions, and a firsthand look at how daily life in cohousing really works. You’ll see common houses, shared gardens, accessible layouts, and hear directly from residents about what makes cohousing special—what challenges they’ve overcome, what they’ve learned, and how their lives have been changed for the better.

Nevada City Cohousing, Nevada City, CA

This weekend, you can check out events and tour a cohousing community near you!

Wolf Creek Lodge, Grass Valley, CA

These communities are diverse—urban and rural, intergenerational and senior-focused, new and well-established—but all share a commitment to cooperation, sustainability, and meaningful neighborly relationships. Whether you're interested in affordability, ecological design, or building a strong support network, you'll find valuable insights and inspiration from people already living and loving the cohousing life.

Find a participating community near you, bring friends, family, your questions, and experience what’s possible when people come together to create places that truly feel like home. This might be the beginning of your own journey toward a more connected, empowered, and intentional way of living.

Cohousing has long represented an inspiring model of intentional living—communities built on shared values, mutual support, and thoughtful design. But for many, the dream of living in a well-connected, energy-efficient neighborhood can feel out of reach due to cost and complexity. Like nearly everything in the housing sector, cohousing has been affected by rising construction prices, permitting hurdles, and the need for specialized knowledge. Yet, after seeing through the success of more than 55 cohousing communities, we know that affordability and sustainability aren’t just aspirations—they are an achieved outcome when you approach it with the experience giving the insight of the small easily missed details that can mean major savings.

Nevada City Cohousing, Nevada City, CA

Trudeslund, Birkerod, Denmark

One of the key reasons costs inflate in a typical development is a lack of collaboration and foresight early in the design process. When an architect is inexperienced in cohousing-specific cost-saving strategies—budgets swell and opportunities for innovation are lost. Cohousing projects are rooted in the domain of fiscal responsibility driven by the residents themselves. In every project The Cohousing Company has ever worked on, groups have always made one thing clear: the project must be affordable. That mandate has allowed us to repeatedly build at significantly lower costs than the industry standard—typically about $50 less per square foot . Take Nevada City Cohousing, for example: while developers and builders quoted $150–$200 per square foot, we were able to build for $95 per square foot. How? By utilizing 40 years of experience and prioritizing early, we can creatively problem-solve, with a practical approach to sustainable infrastructure.

Of course, the journey isn't without challenges. Balancing energy-efficiency with affordability can mean making difficult decisions about materials, systems, or construction timelines. And not every project hits its budget targets—these projects that have gone over budget bring to light the need for realistic view between design goals and financial parameters. Still, the long-term benefits of efficient infrastructure make these efforts more than worthwhile. Energy efficiency and sustainability are not luxuries; they’re investments in long-term viability.

Nevada City Cohousing, Nevada City, CA

Silver Sage, Boulder Creek, CO

Energy efficiency and sustainability go far beyond simply investing in a few solar panels. The cohousing model itself supports sustainability through shared resources, while the construction must also facilitate it. Shared amenities like laundry facilities, gardens, tools, libraries, internet, and even vehicles, naturally reduce consumption and waste. Cohousing also fosters habits of mindful consumption and mutual support, encouraging residents to adopt and maintain energy-conscious behaviors.

While obvious tools like solar energy are a valuable tool, that is just one piece of a much larger puzzle when it comes to creating these environmentally responsible, cost-effective communities. Every new community increasingly adopting new strategies that address energy use, water conservation, waste reduction, and smart design from the ground up. They contribute innovations to the ecosystem of sustainable practices—creating a living database of infrastructure models and best practices that others can adapt and build upon.

Nevada City Cohousing, Nevada City, CA

To support projects navigating this balancing act, Charles Durrett has paired with the Cohousing Institute to teach a six-part online course starting July 10 focused on Affordability and Energy Efficiency in Cohousing. Future residents, architects, developers, or existing communities making changes for a lighter carbon footprint, this course will provide practical guidance, case studies of existing communities, and strategies that have been field-tested to help you bring your vision to life—within budget and with the planet in mind. Learn how we've built successful, lower-cost, high-functioning neighborhoods across the country—and how others can do the same.

If you’ve read One Life, Live It! or taken one of Charles Durrett’s courses on Neurodiverse Community Living, you may already be familiar with Arnar’s story. At 34 years old, Arnar moved into Sólheimar, an ecovillage in Iceland designed with community, sustainability, and inclusivity at its core. Prior to joining Sólheimar, Arnar had not held a job, and his opportunities for social interaction were quite limited. It is hard to say, but this feeling of isolation may have influenced his decision to move to Sólheimar’s social framework. Like many individuals adjusting to a new environment—particularly those with neurodivergent experiences—Arnar was initially reserved and quiet.

Sólheimar, Iceland

Sólheimar, Iceland

But that wasn’t the Arnar Charles Durrett met when he visited Sólheimar in 2023. Instead, he was greeted by a warm, smiling man eager to share his experience and role in the community. Arnar described his work on the maintenance team with pride: “I scrape wood with my scraper. Someone else sands the woodwork. Someone else masks off the windows. Someone else primes them and someone else paints them.” This consistent, collaborative routine not only provides Arnar with a sense of structure and dependability—it also brings purpose and satisfaction. For many neurodiverse individuals, routines support self-regulation, ease anxiety, and create an empowering sense of predictability in daily life.

“Set routines, times, particular routes and rituals all help to get order into an unbearably chaotic life. Trying to keep everything the same reduces some of the terrible fear.”

—Jolliffe (1992) in Howlin (2004), p.137

Beyond the work itself, Arnar’s routine includes daily interactions with others—an essential part of high-functioning communities. “I have something to do every day. People depend on me, and I depend on them. We’re a team. Now I have purpose,” he shared. Within the shared responsibilities of the workplace, residents naturally build relationships, communication skills, and mutual respect. These interpersonal connections, nurtured through collaboration and trust, are invaluable life skills for everyone, regardless of age or neurotype.

It's no surprise, but the UK’s National Autistic Society notes that strong personal interests often bring autistic individuals joy, focus, and connection. These interests can evolve into meaningful occupations and become central to wellbeing—offering comfort, fostering communication, and anchoring a sense of identity. Arnar’s story is a testament to the universal need for purpose, belonging, and pride in one’s contributions. His journey reminds us that meaningful work, structured support, and a strong sense of community can be transformative for all of us.

Stories like Arnar's are extremely common in intentional communities like Sólheimar. Learn more about the inclusivity and support cohousing offers for those with I/DD during Charles's free Neurodivergent Community Living Introduction on June 18th. And be sure to check out the six-part Neurodivergent Community Living Workshop beginning July 16th, where participants will be led step by step in how to bring these communities to life. Receive the practical guidance grounded in lived experience—because everyone deserves a place to thrive.

Sólheimar, Iceland

Waning cohousing is real–too real. The best way to mitigate it is to remember the conscious decisions that made such a big difference in shifting culture in the beginning. Not only having common dinner, but to sustain it is to honor it–more than is normal in our culture. That is when dinner is important, where it is honored–where it addresses the need of folks who want a centered dinner–where it makes us feel like the acoustics are great, the lighting is great, and therefore the company (your neighbors), and the conversation is amazing. And where the churn is minimum. Where people come as close to on time as possible to show their respect to their neighbors and to the cook. Where there is not excessive walking during dinner–(dinner is served on the table for example) and where the needs of a calm dinner are paramount. That usually starts with minimizing the distraction of folks coming late.

Nevada City Cohousing, Nevada City, CA

Less breaking bread is usually the largest factor in waning cohousing. It is largely argued that waning common dinner emerges when folks just find it easier to pick up a burger on the way home from work or otherwise or just prefer the path of lesser resistance by having dinner at home.

Trudeslund, Birkerod, Copenhagen, Denmark

Trudeslund in Denmark still has dinner seven nights a week and each still cherish the opportunity to show up a couple times per week. I’ve been getting too many letters like the one above, so I’ll be doing a class next winter called “Mitigating Waning Cohousing.” Preserving community is a conscious act.

This article is written with the inspiration of sociologist Dr. Søren Skovland. He grew up in cohousing and is now raising his family there. Even in Denmark Dr. Skovland has found cohousing waning. The cohousing that he moved to in 1972, is different than the one he moved back to in 2020. He's working to revitalize his community and others.

As we step into a new season, the garden reminds us that true growth is most meaningful when nurtured together. Now is the time to get back outside, enjoy the sunshine, and reconnect with the land, our neighbors, and a shared sense of purpose. In cohousing, where collaboration and sustainability are core values, the community garden can be such a powerful space for growth in every sense of the word. It is more than a patch of dirt—it’s a place where residents have the unique opportunity to cultivate food as well as relationships.

Nevada City Cohousing, Nevada City, CA

Nevada City Cohousing, Nevada City, CA

The act of communal gardening fosters frequent, meaningful interaction while contributing towards good, organic food. Neighbors gather with hands in the dirt and minds in conversation, sharing knowledge, labor, and the rewards of their harvest. The garden provides the chance to offer a tomato to a neighbor, arrange flowers as a gift for a friend, or sharing gardening tips at a common dinner.

For children and beginning gardeners alike, the community garden becomes a living classroom. Hands of all sizes dig side by side, learning not just about seeds and seasons, but about patience, responsibility, and cooperation. As children watch their efforts (and their parents') bloom, they feel a sense of accomplishment and contribution, especially when neighbors pause to admire the flowers they helped to plant or share a meal made with vegetables they helped grow. In these exchanges, we are fostering intergenerational bonds and the garden becomes a mirror of cohousing’s purpose: mutual care, shared effort, and collective celebration.

Frogsong Cohousing, Cotati, CA