O Cohousing, modelo de moradia que combina privacidade com comunidade, e o seu potencial como retrofit no centro de São Paulo

Cohousing, a housing model that combines privacy with community, and its potential as a retrofit in downtown São Paulo

Cohousing is a housing model that combines privacy with community and was born in Denmark in the 1960s. The concept spread throughout Europe, reaching North America, Canada and the United States, where there are now over 200, and now the first cohousing units are also being created in Australia, New Zealand and Israel.

With the rapid aging of our population and increasing loneliness and isolation due to the model of extreme individualism taught by our contemporary society, cohousing emerges as an effective remedy against these ills resulting from this lifestyle. Studies of the Blue Zones, the regions with the highest number of centenarians per capita in the world, show that quality social connections are the most important factor for healthy and long-lasting aging.

By focusing on cooperation and the value of community life, while maintaining privacy, cohousing has been gaining more and more followers at a time when people are beginning to realize the importance of quality human relationships, of mutual support, for a healthier, richer and more meaningful life in the third stage of life.

One of the models on the rise in the United States and England is cohousing retrofits. In these models, an apartment, residential or office building, both worn out by time, is given a new use through a complete renovation, which revitalizes them.

Downtown São Paulo is a great place for architects, urban planners and developers to create retrofitted cohousing projects focused on cohousing. Precisely because of the large stock of old buildings. Cohousing will act as a catalyst for a new, renewed and vibrant occupation, contributing to the rediscovery of the city center.

The concept of cohousing proposes a process of forming the community that will live there. The group in formation will come together in order to gradually build, under the coordination of an experienced facilitator, a network of relationships, respect, cooperation, and friendship among its members.

Research conducted by Free Aging, a platform for active aging, indicates that in just one month, more than 300 of its visitors expressed interest in learning about the cohousing housing model. The majority of them are people between 50 and 65 years old, and are looking for a new way to live and live their coming years with quality of life.

The research is initial and the sample is small, but it is indicative that mature people, those who are aging, want to take the aging process into their own hands, rather than leaving these decisions to others.

A good example of a retrofitted cohousing is Swan's Market Cohousing in Oakland, California. It was an iconic market that closed its doors after an earthquake hit the area in 1989, and was later revitalized and transformed into a horizontal cohousing development.

Today, in order to move into Swan's Market, you have to stay on a waiting list. This is a sign of the value that cohousing could have in the near future for the housing market for seniors in our country.

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Edgar Werblowsky is a cohousing advocate in Brazil, coordinator of the International Cohousing Course ( www.cursocohousing.com.br ), creator of Free Aging ( www.freeaging.com.br ), founder of Freeway Viagens ( www.freeway.tur.br ) and Immaginare Experiências ( www.immaginare.tur.br ). He lives in Serra da Mantiqueira, where he is starting the Cohousing Villa Freeway project.

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