Educational Media Reviews Online

Best of Both Worlds: Cohousing’s Promise presents several examples of cohousing communities, which are living arrangements offering privately owned homes or apartments with shared indoor and outdoor facilities, tools, amenities and several meals each week. Central to the film is architect Charles Durrett, who became interested in and began creating cohousing communities in the U.S. in the late 1980s. Some early projects, in addition to more recent ones, are presented with many resident interviews discussing the social and environmental benefits they experience.

Other topics of discussion include shared spaces, community gardens, and challenges in getting a cohousing project up and running. These communities take a variety of forms; the two presented, both in California, are a small village arrangement that originally consisted of mostly young families and a condominium type building with exclusively senior residents. As a result, this film may be of interest to several disciplines including architecture, urban planning, sociology, family studies, geography and even gerontology.

Potentially of interest to librarians is that the architect, Durrett, has written several books on cohousing, so these might be good supplemental resources for faculty or students watching the film. While the film is about 27 minutes, ideal for a classroom setting, it is also divided into small segments making it even easier to view certain parts or pause for discussions.