Cohousing in Alaska: Fostering a healthy community through design.

by Erik Stromberg

Chairperson of the Supervisory Committee:
Associate Professor Julie Johnson, Department of Landscape Architecture


2004

This design thesis explores the relationship between the built environment and the process of community formation. Specifically, I ask what design strategies are available to designers that will help foster healthy communities? Based on research from cohousing, environmental psychology, political science, ecology and ecological design, combine concepts regarding social and ecological communities to develop a framework and refine the definition of community. The framework explores the concept of interaction as the principal mechanism involved in building a sense of community and I use this framework to guide the design of Alaska's first cohousing community in Homer.

For this project I began the design process by adopting many of the strategies that cohousing communities have been refining over the past decade and adding additional strategies that addressed ecological processes more specifically. These strategies form a framework that merges concepts from social and ecological community research. As a result, I propose a broader definition of "healthy community" that links the process of interaction with the formation of relationships, both among people and between people and the natural processes of place.

I use this framework to analyze three existing cohousing communities: Jackson Place Cohousing in Seattle, Washington,
Puget Ridge Cohousing in Seattle, Washington, and Winslow Cohousing in Winslow, Washington. For each precedent study I
assess the development's ability to foster a sense of community. Next, I describe the site plan for 59 degree North Cohousing
I developed using findings from the literature review and precedent studies. Finally, I describe the design as it relates to my critical
position and conclude with reflections regarding this thesis.