- Beyond Sustainability - The Case for Regenerative Design
- Understanding Place - Climate, Site, and Solar Geometry
- The Six Integrated Systems - An Overview
- Building with the Earth—Natural Materials
- Passive Solar Design - Heating and Cooling Without Machines
- Off-Grid Energy Systems - Power from the Sun
- Water - Catching, Storing, and Cycling
- Liquid Waste Treatment - Botanical Systems
- Food Systems—Buildings That Feed
- Community Design - Scaling Up
- The Integrated Design Process
- Appendix A: Glossary of Key Terms
- Appendix B: The Pangea Textbook Series
- Appendix C: Key Design Principles at a Glance
- The Regenerative Community Vision
- Site Assessment and Land Reading
- Land Use Law and Legal Frameworks
- Master Planning for Regenerative Communities
- Infrastructure Systems Integration
- Housing Typologies and Density Design
- Community Governance Structures
- Economic Models for Community Development
- Phased Development Strategy
- Community Resilience and Long-Term Stewardship
- Appendix A: Legal Entity Comparison Chart
- Appendix B: Community Design Checklist
- Appendix C: Glossary of Community Development Terms
Cohousing is a community design model where residents occupy private dwellings supplemented by an extensive shared common house. The common house typically includes a large kitchen and dining room (where the community shares meals several times per week), laundry facilities, guest rooms, children’s play areas, and community meeting space.
The cohousing model dramatically reduces per-household infrastructure costs, ecological footprint, and living expenses while increasing social connection. Research consistently shows that cohousing residents report higher levels of social connection and lower levels of loneliness than residents of conventional housing. They also consume significantly less energy per capita due to shared appliances, smaller private spaces, and behavioral influences of community living.
Pangea Biotecture designs cohousing communities with passive solar Earthship-inspired architecture — each private dwelling is a compact, high-performance passive house, while the common house is the most architecturally expressive building in the community.