Most co-housers are motivated by a desire to live as a community that actively participates in its own creation and sustainability. Some communities form in a bottom-up way because of shared ecological or social visions (in Sweden, for example, co-housing is viewed as an ideal environment in which to raise children), while others are assembled in a top-down fashion by housing associations or even for-profit developers. Communities may be structured as owner-occupied, mutual home ownership, rental or mixed-tenure. They can be rural or urban. They may accommodate households of all ages (intergenerational co-housing) or cater specifically for older people or particular groups, notably women.

One important part of the co-housing process is that (future) residents participate in the planning and design of their communities, working with architect. and each other in a non-hierarchical nz- The weeks and months spent discuss- ing and developing ideas may result in strikingly original designs, but also he: to introduce groups to the processes of negotiation and compromise that will required when they live as communities. Here we describe aspects of the design process ofone London co-housing a community still under development, and briefly discuss examples from elsewhere in the UK and abroad. Finally, we comment on the lessons that the collaboration process ofco-housing design offers for urban design more generally.”