Publications on Cohousing

Complete report: Publications on Cohousing 

In the fall of 1999 I developed a list of 65 publications on cohousing listed in the
"Worldcat" library database which is available to library card holders at
the Hennepin County (Minnesota) Library Catalog site at
telnet://hennepin.lib.mn.us/ .  I presume it is available elsewhere tho I
do not know where. The database includes names of libraries that hold each
document which could be used to access them by inter-library loan.

About my findings.

Articles in periodicals are not included in this database (a few
periodicals about cohousing are listed). The widely held publications are
mostly the ones with which we are familiar. ( I went and looked on
www.cohousing.org for a list of books about cohousing and could not find
anything - I did not check the cohousing-L archives. There's a little
project for someone.)  McCammant and Durret's _Cohousing_ was by far the
most widely held publication.  Several others (e.g. Chris ScottHansen's)
book were not in nearly as many libraries as would be desireable.

The most interesting thing is the large number of academic theses listed.
See the summary below.

I do wonder how complete this data is. For example, Donna Spreitzer's 1992
Master's thesis at the School for International Training, Brattleboro, VT
is not listed.

Her thesis is about two early Davis California cohousing communities
including the premier Retrofit Cohousing community called N Street Cohousing.
Full text of it can be found at:

Donna Spreitzer's 1992 Master's thesis 

Below is a summary of theses that are listed:

43 Academic theses out of 66 records:
30 in Architecture
13 in other fields

2 PHd
3 B Arch
1 senior honors
37 Masters level

Frequently mentioned institutions:
10 CA (7 UC, Berkeley)
 4 U Wash
 3 IA State (my alma mater! & no cohousing in Iowa)

Generally the only library that holds a thesis is the one at
the institution at which it was written.

Complete report: Publications on Cohousing 


Fred  fholson at cohousing.org   2005