Co-housing, a future way of living together | Eef Tanghe | TEDxLeuven

Here is an unsettling question: our population and our cities are growing, how will we handle our needs for sustainable housing? Here is one solution...

In this talk Eef Tanghe explores the widely varying benefits of living together in more tightly knit co-housing communities.

Eef Tanghe is a manager for Co-housing Projects, a cooperative that supports people in building their own co-housing community in Flanders.
While initiating her personal project near Ghent, she acquired expert knowledge by hurdling many obstacles and visiting other communities in Belgium and abroad. Today, more than 20 groups of neighbors rely on her financial, architectural and legal advice to get their own community up and running.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

I truly believe that,

if we want to create more sustainable,
affordable and attractive cities,

co-housing is really the way to go.

I am going to try to convince you of that.

When I graduated, I was looking
for a place to live,

so I ended up renting this cute red house

in Ghent city.

It was a really small house

and it wasn't that comfortable

because in the winter
it could get cold and a little bit damp,

but the renting price was okay.

So, I stayed there for three years.

And as you hear, it wasn't really

because of the house but mainly
because of the neighborhood.

There were 25 of those houses
in the street.

The street was car free
so it was really quite,

certainly for a city.

But it was a warm environment to live in

and I had a really good bond
with my neighbors.

Whenever the sun was shinning
and the weather was good,

we pick up our tables, our chairs
and we set them on the streets

and we had a picnic,
or spontaneous barbecue,

or we celebrated a party
or someone's birthday.

And the best thing of all
was that whenever I was in trouble

or I needed some help, there was always
a neighbor who would help me out.

I knew who they were, I knew their names,
I knew their children,

and I knew what kind of work
they were doing.

So, if I needed a ride
to the train station,

or had a flat tire with my bike,

I could ring on any doorbell
and I knew for sure

that there was a neighbor
behind that door who would help me.

And I did the same for them,
so it was really nice.

But all good things come to and end.

Then we decided that we would want
to stop renting houses

and buy something for ourselves.

So, we went up to the housing markets,

we looked up things online
and we visited some houses,

but all we saw were some bricks
with windows and a door

like all the houses in the street,

but we did not know whether
it was a nice neighborhood,

or, if I needed an egg, I was able

to ring the door bell of the neighbor
and ask him for an egg.

That wasn't written on those websites,
so I didn't know that.

And it was really frustrating
because the housing market in Belgium

is changing really quickly.

The land gets scarcer,

and the prices get up,
they get really high

certainly for beginning families
and beginning couples.

So, let me show you a picture of how
houses get built in Belgium nowadays.

This is not some photoshopped image,
it's not a third-world country,

it's in Ghent, about two kilometers
from where I live now.

I took the picture four years ago,

and I truly hope those people
who live there are happy.

But I also truly
hope there's a different way

we can organize the way we live,
because we spend so much time thinking

what toilet seat shall we choose
for our house;

how should the bathroom look like?!

But we never spend time
on how the houses themselves --

how they should be located,
or how nice the neighborhood is.

So, we keep on thinking
in very classic patterns

when it comes to housing in Belgium.

Of course, 50 years ago,
it was nice to have our own house

with a big piece of land next to it,
and a big garden.

But now the land gets scars
and budgets get bigger,

we keep on practicing the same principles.

And now you see that you get
all these small houses

with small gardens and we sure need
to get fences around them,

because "what would happen
if our neighbor stepped on our garden?"

I don't think that's the biggest problem
we have nowadays.

So, we believe that there's a sensible
way to deal with this kind of problems.

And actually, after years,
we stoped looking for a house.

We were that desperate

and we simple googled the actual phrase
"alternative ways to live."

That's when we ended up
with the co-housing principles.

We have not heard before about it,
but we found it online,

and we found a group in Ghent

who was trying to create
their own co-housing community.

We went to a meeting
and at first we were a little skeptic

because we thought
that would all be hippies in white drapes

dancing around the bonfire.

But it turn out they were all
very nice people

looking for the same thing
we were looking for -

a nice neighborhood, friendly neighbors

who we can depend on if it's necessary.

But of course, not like a student dorm,

where you need to share
bathrooms and kitchens.

We were very fond
of our privacy ourselves.

We started gathering with the people

and we created our own houses
the way we wanted them to be,

and own neighborhood with our own rules.

And we talked a lot about
what we were willing to share,

what we were not willing to share.

That's at least as important
as the sharing parts.

It took us five years,
and we got to the point

where we had this nice atmosphere
in our neigborhood.

So, away with the fences,

a community garden is much nicer
because this is what you get -

not 16 sandboxes, 16 trampolines
with all the kids playing on their own.

That's boring. Kids wanna play together.

So, this way they play together

and then all the grown-ups
get to do a nap in their chairs,

while the big children look out
for the small children.

That's the way the life should be,
not like prison but really comfortable.

Now my job, my daytime job
is to help starting groups

who want to build their own
co-housing project.

We give them legal, financial advice,
because it's a complex process.

You are with a group where they are
not always architects in a group,

not always people who know
how to build houses,

so we guide them a little bit.

We have about 20 projects now in Belgium.

And we hope that within a couple of years

all of those projects get realized
and people have a very nice environment.

What's the biggest difference between
the classic allotment and co-housing?

This is certainly
the classic way to do it.

You see a big street.

That's the thing that is
really important in this picture,

because you need a street
and then you need a turning point,

and everyone needs his driveway,
and his garage and a house,

of course, and a garden.
It looks very simple.

But we think if you add a little
co-housing touch, it could be better,

because if one child from the house
on the left would like to play

with the child
from the other side of the street,

they have to ask their parents
and cross a really dangerous street.

So, it's not a really
vibrant neighborhood,

if you come home from work,
you simply drive your car into the garage

and you get home, it's not like
you have to say "Hi" to your neighbor.

But this is the way it happens, I think,
ninety-nine percent of the time.

This is the same piece of land but
it's the project we build near Ghent,

which will be finished in December.

And then you see there are also 16 houses,
each with its small garden.

But the main garden
is for all the neighbors together:

to play in together, to sit in together,
to plant things together.

And the houses are a bit smaller
because you can share your garden,

but you can also share
space in your own house.

So, each has its own house to live in
with their family, with a bathroom,

with a kitchen, with everything you need.

But every co-housing group decides
what is important for them to share.

Some share washing machines,
or share bed and breakfast,

or mostly there's a big
dinning room with a kitchen.

So, if you have family
and friends over visiting,

they can come and eat in there.

One of the other main aspects
is that the terrain is very open,

so if you meet a neighbor, you go
and pick up your bike, for instance,

and you meet a neighbor say "Hi"
or you simply say: "Uhm, not today".

That's also possible.

Another priciple is that
you park your car front of the driveway,

so you don't have a garage
next to your house.

And if I tell that to the people
in Belgium, it's quite a shock.

You might as well take
the candy from your kids away

because people need garages,

mainly it is to stow away some stuff
they don't need anymore,

not for a car, the car needs to be
parked in front of it.

But people need garages for some reason.

Now in co-housing, we all park in the
beginning of the terrain,

so the rest of the land is very quite,

nice for children to play in
because there's no danger,

and you can leave it all clean
because you don't need any roads in it.

This is what you get
when you have a garden that's shared.

This is a still from one of our projects.

There you see a little boy
practicing his clarinet

and his older generation neighbor

who helps him because
she also plays the clarinet.

Maybe they can learn from each other.

The two cute little girls picnicking
and hopefully enjoying

the sound of the clarinet.

This is not something organized,
it's very spontaneous

but people meet if they want
and stay in their houses

they don't want to meet other people.

These are some -- the main reasons,
three main reasons why people

really liked to go live in a co-housing
is first of all, sustainability

because you have more garden, fewer roads,

because you can share things
with each other.

People really choose to live
in that kind of community.

This is a young couple, who just bought
an apartment in our project here in Leuven

called "Botanical",
next to the botanical gardens.

And they really chose to live
in this project because they like the way

the houses are renovated
with ecological materials,

and they get to share things,
kid clothing, cars,

and all other stuff with their neighbors.

And really exceptional for Leuven
is that they share a big garden

of a thousand square meters,

so their kids can play whenever they
want - no cars, but most important -

a lot of kinds in the neighborhood
to play with.

This is another couple that asked us
to help build their co-housing project

because one of them is in a wheelchair

and they had big trouble
finding the right place to live.

It was either too expensive
or it was not accessible by a wheelchair.

So they were also frustrated
and they asked us,

"Can you help us to find a place
to build our co-housing project?"

And one thing I will never forget
she said to me was,

"I'd rather have 33 neighbors living
next to me, who can help me

if I have a problem than the red button
you normally have in your living room.

If there's a problem and someone
needs to come and help you.

So, people are really looking again
for those warm neighborhoods

instead of the anonymous cities
we have now.

You can do the same thing in an apartment.

It doesn't have to be a big project.

Most of all apartments in Belgium
have cropped hallways

but you need to make them bigger,

so people can meet
and spend time together there.

The last reason people want to live
in co-housing is social aspect.

This is the young couple who
also graduated and then wanted to move

from the city to the suburbs
because they thought, in the suburb,

that's where kids play together, that's
where we have spontaneous barbecues

with our neighbors when
nobody knew each other.

So, now they are moving back to the city,

where their kids can play in the garden

and they are again
in this vibrant community

that used to be back in those days.

I now show all families with little kids
but it's also for an older generation,

really pleasant to live in co-housing.

We see a lot of people that have kids

that went out of house and they suffer
from the empty-nest syndrome,

so they really need their kids
to take care of.

Then they come and live in co-housing

and they are surrounded by all young
people who can help them if it's needed,

and they can do a little chat
if they want to meet some people.

So, it's not an obligation to meet people,
but there's an opportunity

to meet people -
that's the most important thing

because privacy is also
very important in co-housing -

that you have your own space

that you don't need
to share everything with everyone.

But there's an opportunity to share
if you want to share.

So, that's why I sincerely think -
and I hope you think as well -

that if we want sustainable cities,
if we want affordable cites,

and if we want attractive cities
to young and old,

that co-housing is really a way to go.

(Applause)