Co-Housing Response to Social Isolation of COVID-19 Outbreak, with a Focus on Gender Implications

Abstract

COVID-19 forced billions of people to restructure their daily lives and social habits. Several research projects have focused on social impacts, approaching the phenomenon on the basis of different issues and scales. This work studies the changes in social relations within the well-defined urban-territorial elements of co-housing communities. The peculiarity of this research lies in the essence of these communities, which base their existence on the spirit of sharing spaces and activities. As social distancing represented the only effective way to control the outbreak, the research studied how the rules of social distancing impacted these communities. For this reason, a questionnaire was sent to 60 communities asking them to highlight the changes that the emergency imposed on the members in their daily life and in the organization of common activities and spaces. A total of 147 responses were received and some relevant design considerations emerged: (1) the importance of feeling part of a “safe” community, with members who were known and deemed reliable, when facing a health emergency; and (2) the importance of open spaces to carry out shared activities. Overall, living in co-housing communities was evaluated as an “extremely positive circumstance” despite the fact that the emergency worsened socialization.

Effect of Housing Quality on the Mental Health of University Students during the COVID-19 Lockdown

“…These findings are consistent with the new challenges that COVID-19 lockdown measures brought to attention on housing environments, stressing the need for healthy, comfortable, and sustainable living places [ 46 , 48 ]. The data also emphasized the possible need for novel and more technological tools for flexible interior design modifications [ 49 ], common recreational open spaces, and vegetation views [ 20 , 50 , 51 ], as well as workspace adaptations [ 24 , 41 ]. Our findings also support a positive association between self-reported mental health symptomatology and indoor quality features, such as the presence of plant plots, or greater amounts of sunlight, as also reported in previous European studies [ 37 , 52 , 53 ].…”

COVID-19 and City Space: Impact and Perspectives

“…With the COVID-19 crisis, the advantage of individual over collective housing was emphasized. As a result, different debates on the re-examination of existing housing typologies, e.g., [92,[139][140][141][142], have been launched. The residents of houses had an exclusive and unrestricted access to the private open space, and usually a higher level of spatial comfort which was useful for keeping the prescribed physical distance and maintaining the isolation period more easily.…”

Personal Characteristics for Successful Senior Cohousing: A Proposed Theoretical Model

“…The debate over the complex balance between interdependence and individualism remains ongoing [ 79 ]. Cohousing may offer a form of residential environment that is attractive to individuals looking for a sense of belonging to a community and who feel that today’s urban lifestyles do not foster mutual support [ 80 ]. However, some people also argue that the type of relationship created in a cohousing community is closer to that of a traditional community and is not always desirable for those who may sometimes choose not to interact with fellow residents because they often prefer privacy [ 81 ].…”