Le Nuove forme di «vicinato intenzionale»: il cohousing in Italia e in Inghilterra

The thesis aims to offer a better understanding of the reasons why Cohousing communities arise, how they work, the internal composition, the architectural schemes, the relationships with the "outside". Cohousing may be defined as "intentional communities" that satisfy the need of friendly relationships among neighbours. We argue that the physical layout is not per se able to create the sense of community, other requirements are needed (e.g. intentionality, availability of time to build relationship, individual characteristics, formal activities, size of the group and the site, internal governance, social and cultural homogeneity, length of the residence etc.)Cohousing groups are usually open toward the "outside" making their facilities available to external individuals and organizing many "open activities". Hence, even if safety is not the primary goal of cohousers, it is still guaranteed by a "neighbourhood watch system". The risk that the Cohousing may become a self segregated community is more likely to be associated to the costs of access and the development scheme rather than to a shared ideology. In particular, the resident-led model is characterized by high costs of access because cohousers are responsible for each aspect. At the same time, partnership models may be more affordable, but residents may not have the same freedom. Finally, the market system that follows top-down logics can affect the sense of community because people do not know each other.