'Living together on one's own': Cohousing for older people - an example from Denmark and The Netherlands

‘Living together on one’s own’ is the seemingly contradictory expression of the National Association of Housing Communities for Elderly People (LVGO) in The Netherlands which in fact captures the essence of cohousing. Cohousing is a novel kind of neighbourhood, housing a novel form of intentional community, which began to take shape in Denmark in the early to mid-1960s and, independently, in The Netherlands a few years later. The inventors of cohousing wanted to live in a much more communal or community-oriented neighbourhood than was usual, but they wanted to do so without sacrificing the privacy of individual families or households and their dwellings. Could they have their cake and eat it too? It would seem so. What is cohousing for older people (op-cohousing)? Op-cohousing is essentially no different, except for the differences in outlook or expectations, experience, interests and abilities that a particular, exclusively older, group of people have brought to this housing type. I discuss and analyse several communities in both countries.