Sun, Surf and Sustainable Housing— Cohousing, the Californian Experience JO WILLIAMS The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, UK ABSTRACT Increasing environmental problems associated with the domestic sector and the decline of local social capital and resident participation in their locality has led the UK government to seek more sustainable housing models. Cohousing could provide one option. However, cohousing has been relatively unsuccessful in the UK so far. The author sets out to prove that cohousing is a more sustainable housing model (using international examples) and that it in fact achieves many of the sustainability objectives of the new urbanist movement. An international comparison of the experience of cohousing in the UK and California and the factors influencing success and failure of cohousing in both locations are then explored. Drawing on the Californian experience the author then tries to provide some indication of how the development of cohousing could be encouraged in the UK in the future. Introduction Environmental problems associated with the domestic sector and the decline of place- based communities has led the UK government to seek more sustainable housing models (Table 1). Housing models are sought that: . Encourage pro-environmental behaviour; . Have strong social networks; . Are socially inclusive; . Increase residents’ well-being; . Provide affordable accommodation and lifestyle options. To an extent cohousing appears to fulfil these objectives. The evidence underpinning this suggestion comes from a variety of theories: cohousing, social, community development, social capital, economic, psychological, environmental behaviour and collective action theories (section two). Cohousing also appears to fulfil the objectives and adopt similar design strategies as the new urbanist movement for housing, which again is thought to produce more sustainable housing models. However, as with many forms of prototype housing models, cohousing has encountered barriers in the UK, partly as a result of the standardization of the house building process International Planning Studies Vol. 10, No. 2, 1–33, May 2005 CIPS125865 Techset Composition Ltd, Salisbury, U.K. 8/16/2005 Correspondence Address: Dr Jo Williams, The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, Wates House, 22 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0QB, UK. Email: joanna.williams@ucl.ac.uk ISSN 1356-3475 Print=1469-9265 Online=05=020001-33 # 2005 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080=13563470500258824