From collective housing to cohousing - A summary of research

Abstract

This paper is an overview of research on collective housing, defined to include several models of housing with communal facilities. The overview is based on both empirical and theoretical research. A major part of the paper refers to Swedish examples, which have been extensively investigated over several decades, but the paper also includes material from other Scandinavian countries, the United States, Germany, and other parts of the world. Besides a discussion of definitions, the paper contains a summary of research on the history of collective housing, overviews of alternative housing projects, evaluations of individual collective housing projects, how socio-political change affects house forms, and gender child, and design aspects of collective housing. The References comprise 75 titles, 27 of which are in Scandinavian languages and 29 in English.