Loneliness is a complex and usually unpleasant emotional response to isolation.Almost everyone experiences loneliness at some point in lives. 14~17% of adults over 65 are feel lonely, loneliness can increase the risk of poor health outcomes, including anxiety, depression, suicide and premature mortality.
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However, there is a study shows that loneliness can be the result of our built environments — the very homes we choose to live in. As a result, there is an antidote to loneliness, it’s an old way of living, but now tens of thousands of Danish people have been living in this connected way. This living style called cohousing.
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From the outside, cohousing looks no difference than any other small apartment building. Inside, the homes have traditional layout. All have living rooms and kitchens, bedrooms and baths, and there are nine of these homes around a central courtyard. The central courtyard makes this building become cohousing, since it creates social interactions that happen in and around that central courtyard. When people look across the courtyard, people can see each other. During every morning, neighbors can wave at each other furiously when they are making breakfasts.
The common house (which is the central courtyard) is the main point of cohousing. Since the common house creates the social interactions and promotes the community life.
Cohousing helps contribute to and elevate the spirit of community in each community. Although nothing can be perfect, you cannot be the best friends of every single person in a community. People always have differences and conflicts. But living in cohousing, people can intentional about relationships and motivate to resolve differences.
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