Cohousing communities are typically composed of 4-30 small houses, 20-50 adults and their families, and one large common house, though many arrangements exist. Such a compound will help members foster deep friendships and alliances, make day-to-day life easier, and attract interesting people from around the world. It will also provide the scale for a variety of interesting projects and services, potentially including a sabbatical program, an artist- or scientist-in-residence program, a venture fund, onsite chef(s), a workshop, event and recreational spaces, and many others.
Q3 '16: Archive is founded with two of the four floors of our current building.
Q2 '18: Members begin researching harmonious coliving in one house by interviewing members of half a dozen other community houses and adopting their best practices.
Q3 '18: added the third floor, grew from 10 to 15.
Q1 '19: added the fourth floor, grew from 15 to 21.
Q2 '19: submitted an offer to buy the 5BR house next door (failed). Our letter to the owners describes our goals.
Q4 '19 Flock: an experiment in joining separate homes into one communal neighborhood. Developer log, source code. This project's success has validated further research into a distributed neighborhood design.
Q4 '19: surveyed our community to quantify interest in cohousing: 93% are a strong yes, 7% are a yes.
Q1 '20: hired Roger Studley as cohousing consultant, engaged on a weekly basis for 6 months to answer our many questions about financing, ownership, land acquisition, planning approvals, and other crucial details. By the end of our engagement we're ready to purchase land.
Q3 '20: the pandemic puts the cohousing project temporarily on hold.
Q1 '21: we're in our early 30s and feeling too old to live in an aging building in the Mission - start looking to upgrade our coliving space in SF.
Q2 '21: Archive decides instead to dissolve.