saskia de melker: this is the regular dinner scene at saettedammen,a co-housing community 45 minutes outside denmark’s capital of copenhagen. stig brinck, an architect, and his wife, anartist, and the teenage daughters they’ve raised here, are responsible for tonight’smeal…for themselves and 20 neighbors in the common house. stig brinck: we eat together four times a week, for thosewho want to participate. what’s it like cooking for 25 people?
how do you do that? first of all, we have a kitchen that’s capablefor it. so we have the tools to do it. that’s very important. communal meals are a staple at saettedammen,where 71 people live in 28 houses clustered around shared recreational and outdoor spaces— walkways, gardens, and parking — and a common house. residents are expected to clean shared areasand take turns tending the grounds. everyone shares resources like laundry facilities,outdoor tools, and play equipment.
small groups of families rotate leading monthlycommunity meetings. you live in kind of a small, small village. you know everybody around you, and you shareas much as possible. so you are very close neighbors, and you arekind of depending on each other, but you’re not obligated to any strict rules. the saettedammen community is made up of arange of singles, couples, retirees, and families with children. every family has privacy in a home with itsown bedrooms, baths, and kitchen. the land is cooperatively owned, but residentsown their homes — a structure similar to
a condominium association in the u-s. the cost of homes here is comparable to otherhomes in the area, but an average sized household pays about $3,500 dollars a year for communalresources. saettedammen started 46 years ago and is recognizedas the first cohousing community in the world. britta bjerre and her husband, arne, wereamong the first families to move in. britta bjerre: we didn’t want our family to spend our livesin an insular way in a house on a suburban street somewhere. and one day we saw a newspaper ad saying thatsome people had their eyes on a plot of land,
and they were looking for twenty-five to thirtyfamilies to buy it and build houses as well as a communal house. lisa berkman, a professor of public policyand epidemiology at harvard university says that cohousing harkens back to the kinds ofcommunities that used to naturally dominate our societies. lisa berkman: you know, when you think about the apartmentbuildings that were designed at the turn of the century, they were designed as two-familyhouses or three-family houses, each on a floor. and those enabled multi-generation householdsto live together and still have their own
housing. berkman says that cohousing can reduce socialisolation and the detrimental health effects associated with it. social isolation relates to the number ofties and the quality of relationships that you have: religious ties, community ties,work ties. people who are very isolated, who are disconnected,have a mortality rate that’s about three times as high that is, they’re about threetimes as likely to die over maybe a decade, as people who have many, many more ties. 70-year-old jytte helle has lived in saettedammenfor 30 years.
jytte helle: it’s important to me to be with a mixedgroup, not only with other older people, because then we would just talk about our diseasesand aches and pains. older people can’t give the same energyas younger people can. so having neighbors and knowing their kids,i think that’s // just like it’s a benefit of having a big family. is this replacing the idea of the extendedfamily? indeed it is. i see it very much as the extended family.
ella poulsen: it’s like nice to have a friend nearby alwaysthat you can talk to. 14-year old ella poulsen has lived in saettedammenher whole life. it’s kind of like everyone’s a parent,and everybody will take care of the kid if there’s something wrong and the parentsaren’t there. i think it’s just very safe. it’s estimated that at least 1 percent ofthe danish population lives in cohousing arrangements. in the united states, the cohousing associationof america estimates there are about 150 communities. rocky hill cohousing in northampton, massachusettswas established 12 years ago.
it has 28 households with residents rangingfrom age 2 to 80. with a similar financial model to saettedammen,rocky hill has a variety of common spaces, resources, activities, and shared chores. carol rinehart: i love knowing that somebody’s out thereplowing the path on a snowy morning. that’s lovely, knowing that there are mixedages of people who can help with keeping the place up, and we have our jobs divided. carol rinehart is 72-years-old and just retiredfrom her job as a hospice coordinator. she’s lived at rocky hill since its formation.
you don’t get up some day in the morningand say, “you know, i think this is the day i’m going to have a community.†you know, you build a community. the number of americans 65 and older is expectedto nearly double by 2050. according to the pew research center, 61 percentsay they would prefer to stay in their homes even when they can no longer take care ofthemselves.that’s compared to 17 percent who would opt for an assisted living facility. just 8 percent would prefer to move in witha family member. harvard professor lisa berkman says cohousingallows people to age in their homes.
with the aging of the population and the increasingfrailty that people will experience as they age, at some point everybody needs a littlehelp. americans are particularly vulnerable to socialisolation in part because we value independence so much, and because we’re so mobile. and we live in a very, very big country. berkman says that while older americans areespecially vulnerable to social isolation, young families often struggle to maintainsocial networks as they juggle work and family. college professor gary felder lives at therocky hill cohousing community with his wife and their two young children.
he says their social life is built in, unlikeother families who don’t live in a cohousing arrangement. gary felder: you’ve got to arrange babysitting, you needto figure out the timing, and then you’ve got to rush back and so on. and that was just never a big deal for us. we would put our kids down, we would throwin a baby monitor and we would go spend an evening with our friends. every week.
cause you’re right next door, to the commonhouse? yeah, absolutely. and if one of our kids woke up, two minuteslater we were in the bedroom. felder admits that this lifestyle isn’tfor everyone, and about one family a year decides to leave. the biggest challenge is that you’re makingdecisions with 27 other households. that is the definition of hell for some people. but felder says that for his family the benefitsthey get from an intergenerational community outweigh the difficulties.
the other thing which our kids get, whichis even more rare in this society, is they have regular interactions with elders, withseniors. they’re very aware of the whole processof people getting older and retiring and having physical problems and dying. rocky hill residents are coming up with newguidelines to help aging community members, including ride sharing and connecting residentswith financial and medical services. could we even make a space here in the commonhouse for somebody who lives and is a licensed practical nurse and taking care of severaldifferent families who may be in that area of need.
at the saettedammen community in denmark,maintaining an intergenerational community is getting harder. more than half of the residents are now over65. the community is encouraging younger familiesto move in when homes become available. many long time residents, like jytte helle,don’t want to leave their social support network. we’ve been a part of creating this, andwant to feel the benefits that come with getting old in a cohousing community like this. do you think there is something about thiscommunity, does it keep you younger?
yes. definitely. i’m convinced that if i lived exclusivelywith elderly people, i would degenerate. so the fact that i’m living with youngerpeople is a gift on a daily basis.