Sustainable Communities, Co-housing, Ecovillage Case Studies

To understand design possibilities for intentional communities, students created presentations about existing cohousing, ecovillage and other communities.

Spring 2007 Eugene River Road Cohousing Studio

• Examines how communities interact with their neighbors at Cascadia Commons, Yulupa Cohousing & Los Angeles Ecovillage

Demographics & Organizational Types
by Martina Oxoby, Carolina Mondragon-Gomez, Erik Bishoff, & Kaelee Pearson

• A comparative analysis looking at the form and populations of St. Francis Square, Muir Commons, Windsong, Munksogard, Korvetten, Otium, N-Street, Sunlight, and Los Angeles Ecovillage.

Community Gathering Spaces
by Allyson Foster, Matthew Crawford, Erin Kirkpatrick, Frank Tea, Tuan Vu

• Examines how the built environment helps bring a community together with the common house, soft edges and outdoor spaces

Waste & Water
by Rose Formosa, Lauren Mack, Dan Roll & Donny Udell

• Water & waste management ideas for cohousing communities: living machines, micro-hydroelectric power, and rainwater harvesting with examples from Findhorn and Earthhaven.

Spring 2006 Portland Sustainable Cohousing Design Studio

Public-Private Gradients in Danish Cohousing
by Adrienne Leverette, Dennis Beyer & Trang Nguyen

Urban Agriculture
by Kelley Beck

Earthships
by Erik Lawrence, Tommy White, & Jesse Figgins

Takoma Village
by Brannon Soens, Rebecca Pepper, Adam Franch, & Keith Daily

Christiania in Denmark
by Natalie Davis, Peter Siu Kau Lo, Daniel Gihring, & Brienne Wasmer

Teddy Cruz
by J. Casey McGuirl, Sienna Hill, & Anthony Varela

Winter 2005 Ecovillage Seminar
(titles lead to Powerpoint presentations as PDF, Paper is final writeup)

Climate Response and Sustainable Living / Paper
by Maureen McCaffery, Noelle Ji Sun Miller, Michael Hahn and Heidi Spaly

• Examines the climatic and cultural factors leading to the different forms of Christie Walk in South Australia, Cranberry Commons in British Columbia, Duwamish Cohousing in Washington state & Ibsgaarden Project in Denmark.

Popularizing Urban Eco-villages / Paper
by Joy Rackley, Chris Chatto, & Tim Fouch

• Examines the marketing of ecovillages, with a study of BedZed in England and a consideration of how art can be an authentic draw.

Ecovillages and Urban Change in the US / Paper
by Erin Giles, Dana Stutzman, Ryan Jonna, Jessica Neff, & Gina Livingston

• Los Angeles & Ithaca Ecovillages

European & U.S. Cohousing Paper
by Hoi Chun Cheng, Shun Pin Tseng & Christopher Adams

• Urban: Caroline Herschel Strasse in Munich & Jackson Place in Seattle,
  Rural: Drejerbanken in Denmark and Sunlight in Portland,
  Adaptive Reuse: Jernstroberiet in Denmark & Swan's Marketplace in Oakland

Fall 2004 Glenda Utsey's Intentional Community Class

Ecovillages by Sebastian Collet and Per Kielland-Lund

• A strong overview reviews factors shaping intentional communities.

Fall 2003 Mountain Grove Design Studio

Sunlight community in NW Portland, designed by William Church