How Cohousing Can Make Us Happier - a Ted Talk

TED Talk by Grace Kim, April 2017: How cohousing can make us happier (and live longer)

“loneliness can be the result of our built environments – the very homes we choose to live in.” – Grace Kim

Loneliness is a hidden menace in our society, and something that has become much more topical since the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns. This is something that has affected so many of us over the past two years, and has been majorly exacerbated by the way we live, separated from each other in our single family homes.

Section through the Capitol Hill Cohousing scheme

Grace Kim, the designer of the Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing in Seattle (CHUC), speaks in a 2017 Ted Talk about the health benefits of living in a cohousing community. She explains the isolation she feels in the 21stcentury because of the huge dependence people have on social media and technology. This decreasing sense of community, or “communitas” as she calls it, has become all the more evident since the rise of mobile phones, and the problem of loneliness has become much more acute since the rise of the recent pandemic, where almost all of us have experienced isolation and sadness as a result of fewer connections.

Grace Kim talks about the American dream, the dream of a detached single family home and with a front and back garden, as something that is only reinforcing our sense of loneliness and isolation from the communities that we are meant to be part of. The 9 families at CHUC, which she designed and houses her architecture practice in, have intentionally pursued a different way of living, abandoning the concept of an “American dream”. Intention, or shared intention, is key to the success of a cohousing community, where collaboration is necessary to keep the community spirit alive.

Courtyard of CHUC

The Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing is centred around a common house and courtyard, which becomes the heart and soul of the people living there. With enough dining for 30 residents and guests, and a large kitchen for preparing big meals for the entire group, the cohousing collective support eachother both socially, emotionally, and even economically. Eating together in the common room promotes higher levels of “communitas”, and even more social events can be planned from the discussions the residents have with one another at the dinner table, even if it’s as simple as looking after each other’s children or cooking for one another.

The CHUC includes shared laundry facilities, sitting room, guest suite, and a rooftop garden which provides produce for residents and a nearby restaurant in Seattle, making the community both inclusive and sustainable. Social interaction, Kim says, can be promoted through the careful design and selection of furniture, materials, lighting, and consideration of spatial design, outdoor space, and human scale.

The intergenerational nature of Grace Kim’s cohousing community means older people who may not have children or whose family have moved away are less likely to suffer from loneliness and premature death from the isolation it causes. People, families, and neighbours all look out for each other in an intentional and collective way of living.

Rooftop Garden for Growing Produce