by Amanda Stephenson (Calgary Herald)
It will be more than a year before Pat Cancilla can move into her recently purchased Bridgeland suite, but she can’t wait to break bread with her new neighbours.
“I’m looking forward to sharing common meals,” Cancilla says. “I’ve heard the success of a cohousing community can be measured by how many common meals they share a week.”
Cancilla is among the 22 homeowners who have already purchased a suite in Dragonfly Cohousing, a 36-unit residential development planned at the corner of 1st Avenue and 3rd Street S.E. But if its residents have anything to say about it, Dragonfly Cohousing won’t be your run-of-the-mill condo building.
It will be a place where residents grow fresh produce in a shared garden space, where senior citizens and children can get to know each other as friends, and where single people will have a built-in “family” to come home to at the end of the day. Residents might even purchase a shared vehicle, giving individuals the option to give up their own wheels if they want to.
Cohousing, a concept first developed in Denmark in the 1960s, is not brand-new to Calgary. The city’s first cohousing development, Prairie Sky, was completed in 2003 at the corner of Edmonton Trail and 30th Avenue N.E. Its 18 townhouse and apartment-style units are completely sold out, and its model of community-focused, cooperative living has in large part been the inspiration for the Dragonfly Cohousing project.
However, the premise of cohousing is still somewhat radical in North America — there are only 15 or so cohousing arrangements in all of Canada, the majority of which are located in B.C. As they work to bring their own cohousing project to life, Dragonfly members often find themselves fighting misconceptions.
“It’s best to understand cohousing by what it’s not,” says Zaak Robichaud, a Calgary school teacher who has also purchased a Dragonfly unit. “It’s not a commune. We don’t share everything. It’s not just a condo building. And it’s not a cult.”
Under the cohousing structure, members purchase their own individual units that have all the amenities of a typical condo. They also share common areas designed to encourage a sense of community. At Dragonfly Cohousing, for instance, members will have access to a three-storey common house complete with a multi-purpose room, rec room, cafe, large kitchen, dining room, and guest suites that can be booked for family and friends.
The families, couples, and single professionals who have already purchased with Dragonfly don’t consider themselves hippies, by any sense of the word. But they do want to live sustainably in a community where the word “neighbour” really means something.
Jana Vander Kloet, who currently lives in Airdrie, says it was one too many bad-weather commutes that convinced her and her husband to look for alternative housing arrangements. They knew that on their own, they couldn’t afford their dream home in the inner-city — but by banding together with other like-minded individuals, they just might have a shot at it. The cohousing concept saves residents money by cutting down on what individual homeowners need to purchase for themselves.
“I’m looking forward to sharing common meals,” Cancilla says. “I’ve heard the success of a cohousing community can be measured by how many common meals they share a week.”
Cancilla is among the 22 homeowners who have already purchased a suite in Dragonfly Cohousing, a 36-unit residential development planned at the corner of 1st Avenue and 3rd Street S.E. But if its residents have anything to say about it, Dragonfly Cohousing won’t be your run-of-the-mill condo building.
It will be a place where residents grow fresh produce in a shared garden space, where senior citizens and children can get to know each other as friends, and where single people will have a built-in “family” to come home to at the end of the day. Residents might even purchase a shared vehicle, giving individuals the option to give up their own wheels if they want to.
Cohousing, a concept first developed in Denmark in the 1960s, is not brand-new to Calgary. The city’s first cohousing development, Prairie Sky, was completed in 2003 at the corner of Edmonton Trail and 30th Avenue N.E. Its 18 townhouse and apartment-style units are completely sold out, and its model of community-focused, cooperative living has in large part been the inspiration for the Dragonfly Cohousing project.
However, the premise of cohousing is still somewhat radical in North America — there are only 15 or so cohousing arrangements in all of Canada, the majority of which are located in B.C. As they work to bring their own cohousing project to life, Dragonfly members often find themselves fighting misconceptions.
“It’s best to understand cohousing by what it’s not,” says Zaak Robichaud, a Calgary school teacher who has also purchased a Dragonfly unit. “It’s not a commune. We don’t share everything. It’s not just a condo building. And it’s not a cult.”
Under the cohousing structure, members purchase their own individual units that have all the amenities of a typical condo. They also share common areas designed to encourage a sense of community. At Dragonfly Cohousing, for instance, members will have access to a three-storey common house complete with a multi-purpose room, rec room, cafe, large kitchen, dining room, and guest suites that can be booked for family and friends.
The families, couples, and single professionals who have already purchased with Dragonfly don’t consider themselves hippies, by any sense of the word. But they do want to live sustainably in a community where the word “neighbour” really means something.
Jana Vander Kloet, who currently lives in Airdrie, says it was one too many bad-weather commutes that convinced her and her husband to look for alternative housing arrangements. They knew that on their own, they couldn’t afford their dream home in the inner-city — but by banding together with other like-minded individuals, they just might have a shot at it. The cohousing concept saves residents money by cutting down on what individual homeowners need to purchase for themselves.
“For example, we’ll have a shared workshop . . . So not all of us will have to own a garden hose or a drill or a saw,” Vander Kloet says. “I don’t need a guest room in my unit, because I can book the one in the common house. I don’t need to rearrange my entire unit to have eight people over for dinner, I can just book the common house.”
After living in Europe, Vander Kloet was disenchanted with North America’s suburban lifestyle — the big houses, the inability to get anywhere without a car, the isolation from one’s neighbours. She wanted to live somewhere where people would look out for each other’s children, where the elderly would feel less alone.
Robichaud, who currently lives in the city’s far northwest and says most of his neighbours are strangers to him, agrees.
“When we talk about what we’re trying to accomplish, a lot of people say, ‘You’re describing my block. We know everybody, we don’t knock when we go to our neighbours to visit,’ ” he says. “So there are places in Calgary that already have that sense of community, but they tend to be the older, more-established neighbourhoods.”
Instead of an elected condo board, decisions are made by the consensus of all the members. That means that when it came time for the Dragonfly group to purchase land for their development, everyone went along to view each of nine possible sites. The entire planning and development process is the responsibility of the members, and once the 36-unit structure is built, the members will look after the facility management on their own.
But if getting that many individual homeowners to work together and agree sounds vaguely utopian, Robichaud says it simply comes with the territory of cohousing.
“When you start out, you’re most interested in ‘Is this good for you?’ ” he says. “But before long, you start sacrificing personal preferences for what is good for the community. And that’s because you’ve realized that you’re part of the community, so what’s good for the community is good for you.”
Cohousing isn’t for everyone — people either “abhor it or they love it,” Robichaud says. The Dragonfly members don’t let anyone buy a unit unless they’ve come to at least three general meetings and have a good sense of what they’re getting themselves into.
But judging by the enthusiasm with which members have thrown themselves into the Dragonfly project, there is a real hunger among some Calgarians for a way of life that is less about “stuff” and more about relationships. Seventeen-year-old Caleb Jones, who will be moving into Dragonfly with his mother and her boyfriend, said his family always wanted to be part of a small community, but never had the chance.
“I know what it’s like to move around a lot, and it’s really hard to find a place like this, where the entire community is just cooperating and working together,” Jones says. “I think this will work, because everyone already knows each other. Everyone who’s going to be living here has been working together on the production.”
After living in Europe, Vander Kloet was disenchanted with North America’s suburban lifestyle — the big houses, the inability to get anywhere without a car, the isolation from one’s neighbours. She wanted to live somewhere where people would look out for each other’s children, where the elderly would feel less alone.
Robichaud, who currently lives in the city’s far northwest and says most of his neighbours are strangers to him, agrees.
“When we talk about what we’re trying to accomplish, a lot of people say, ‘You’re describing my block. We know everybody, we don’t knock when we go to our neighbours to visit,’ ” he says. “So there are places in Calgary that already have that sense of community, but they tend to be the older, more-established neighbourhoods.”
Instead of an elected condo board, decisions are made by the consensus of all the members. That means that when it came time for the Dragonfly group to purchase land for their development, everyone went along to view each of nine possible sites. The entire planning and development process is the responsibility of the members, and once the 36-unit structure is built, the members will look after the facility management on their own.
But if getting that many individual homeowners to work together and agree sounds vaguely utopian, Robichaud says it simply comes with the territory of cohousing.
“When you start out, you’re most interested in ‘Is this good for you?’ ” he says. “But before long, you start sacrificing personal preferences for what is good for the community. And that’s because you’ve realized that you’re part of the community, so what’s good for the community is good for you.”
Cohousing isn’t for everyone — people either “abhor it or they love it,” Robichaud says. The Dragonfly members don’t let anyone buy a unit unless they’ve come to at least three general meetings and have a good sense of what they’re getting themselves into.
But judging by the enthusiasm with which members have thrown themselves into the Dragonfly project, there is a real hunger among some Calgarians for a way of life that is less about “stuff” and more about relationships. Seventeen-year-old Caleb Jones, who will be moving into Dragonfly with his mother and her boyfriend, said his family always wanted to be part of a small community, but never had the chance.
“I know what it’s like to move around a lot, and it’s really hard to find a place like this, where the entire community is just cooperating and working together,” Jones says. “I think this will work, because everyone already knows each other. Everyone who’s going to be living here has been working together on the production.”
Dragonfly Cohousing’s development permit has already been submitted to the city, and their land purchase has recently closed. NORR Architects has been engaged to design the buildings, and construction is expected to take place in 2013. Unit prices range from $318,000 for a one-bedroom suite to $494,000 for a three-bedroom suite.
A Dragonfly Cohousing information session will be held Friday, May 4 at 7 p.m. at the West Hillhurst Community Association.
A Dragonfly Cohousing information session will be held Friday, May 4 at 7 p.m. at the West Hillhurst Community Association.
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