James Towner | 
03 24th, 2008| 
I’m reading the book ‘Native to Nowhere’ for a class of mine and it’s talking about how many suburbs have hurt people’s sense of community and place. I’m just starting the book, but it got me thinking about Arizona and how many people here don’t seem to feel like they are part of a community. I have to admit I hardly know my neighbors. I was wondering if there were any developments that specifically are designed to create a community, a sense of belonging. Surprising I found a few here in Arizona. So far with a little Google searching I found three cohousing communities. Cohousing doesn’t mean they all share a house, but they are closer then your average suburb. Here’s Wikipedia’s definition.
A cohousing community is a kind of intentional community composed of private homes with full kitchens, supplemented by extensive common facilities. A cohousing community is planned, owned and managed by the residents, groups of people who want more interaction with their neighbours. Common facilities vary but usually include a large kitchen and dining room where residents can take turns cooking for the community. Other facilities may include a laundry, pool, child care facilities, offices, internet access, game room, TV room, tool room or a gym. Through spatial design and shared social and management activities, cohousing facilitates intergenerational interaction among neighbours, for the social and practical benefits. There are also economic and environmental benefits to sharing resources, space and items.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohousing
On top of these developments catering to a sense of community it seems most of them also incorporate a lot of sustainable living practices. Most of the houses are built to be very energy efficient, have greywater systems installed, and have water harvesting equipment installed. They use non- or low-toxicity building materials to protect their health as well. Community gardens, pools, and parks also serve to make the community more tight.
Tucson’s Desert Living recently did a profile on of these communities called Stone Curves. Click here to watch it online.
Here’s a list of cohousing communities I found in Arizona:
- Milagro – Tucson
- Sonora – Tucson
- Stone Curves – Tucson
- Manzanita Village – Prescott
Earthships, cleaning toxic waste with mushrooms, and dumpster diving. Actually the first two are really cool and there are some really nice looking Earthships out there, and cleaning up toxic waste with mushrooms is ingenious. Dumpster diving is definitely too extreme for me. Read all about these over at 
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