Cohousing Scotland Roadshow 2022

Imagine If supported Cohousing Scotland in events across Scotland through May and June 2022. The events aimed to provide as much information as possible about cohousing.

We played our imagine if game with 68 different people in Orkney, Inverkeithing, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

FAQ

  • Our Imagine If game can be played by any age. Our game encourages people to think about shared community resources and what is important to them in their home. You can find out more about our Imagine If game here>

  • Cohousing Scotland are a Charity representing Scottish community-led housing that is run by the residents themselves. Coho Scot act as a support forum for local Cohousing groups, fostering best practice, promoting opportunities and providing guidance to stakeholders. Their ambition is to help create the choice of inclusive, sustainable housing, that responds to the needs of local communities and puts decision making back into their hands.

    You can find out more about Cohousing Scotland here>

  • Cohousing is an ‘intentional group of neighbours’, who live in private homes but share some facilities. Residents come together to design, fund and manage their community, usually in groups of ten-to-40 households. 

    Cohousing Scotland have lots of information about cohousing and it’s endless benefits on their website>

  • We have published a summary of the key results below. If you would like a more detailed overview get in touch with us directly.

Results

Orkney

Thank you to everyone who attended the first event of the Cohousing Scotland Roadshow in Kirkwall, we really enjoyed the conversations we had, as well as the guest panel in the evening.

14 people played our Imagine If Game and the most popular shared spaces were:

1. Shared Laundry (11 votes)
2. Shared Workshop / Studio (10 votes)
3. Communal Garden / Zero Waste Food Shop / Guest Room (9 votes)

We shared the St Magnus Centre with the hosts Hope Cohousing, as well as other organisations that are pushing the boundaries of housing throughout Orkney including: Orkney Empty Homes Partnership, ASPIRE enterprise agency, Sanday Development Trust, North Ronaldsay Development Trust and Shapinsay Development Trust.

We learnt that there are currently 646 empty homes throughout Orkney, Community Car Clubs are a convenient option for inner and outer isles residents, and that Hope Cohousing are an extremely inspirational group of women!

Inverkeithing

We really enjoyed meeting everyone from the Inverkeithing community, as well as the discussion in the evening.

10 people played our Imagine If Game and the most popular shared spaces were:

1. Community Car Club (10 votes)

2. Guest Room (9 votes)

3. Communal Garden / Shared Laundry / Workshop or Studio (8 votes)

We had many conversations about cohousing and the future of the derelict primary school nearby.

We learnt that the Inverkeithing Trust are doing some fantastic community projects to build a sense of place and belonging, that cohousing projects rely heavily on funding to get them off the ground, and that small community acts can have huge positive change.

Glasgow

Thank you for showing up to our third event of the Cohousing Scotland Roadshow Glasgow! This event was full of discussion around shared living between lots of different people. 

15 people played our Imagine If Game and the most popular shared spaces were:

1. Communal Garden (17 votes)

2. Guest Room (15 votes)

3. Shared Kitchen /  Shared Laundry (14 votes)

The focus of our discussion in the evening session was around the barriers for Clachan Cohousing and possible ways of how to dismantle them. The conversation was opened up to the floor including how existing communities can strengthen and the differences between English and Scottish law, policy and funding availability for cohousing.

We learnt that there are many legal, policy and funding barriers in Scotland to creating cohousing communities, there is a need to speak up to your local MSP if you want to see cohousing communities being created in your local area, funding is available for small scale positive community interventions if you look for it (we can help to point you in the right direction), and People really do make Glasgow.

Edinburgh

Thank you for joining us at our 4th event of the Cohousing Scotland Roadshow. This event was our busiest yet with lots of knowledge shared between everyone who came along.

29 people played our Imagine If Game + the most popular shared spaces were:

1. Communal Garden (31 votes)

2. Shared Laundry (27 votes)

3. Guest Room (20 votes)

The evening panel hosted by Cohousing Scotland explored some key issues including the role of the Community Empowerment Act 2015 and how empty homes may be retrofitted by community groups

We learnt that:

+ cohousing groups should invest time into getting to know one another and ‘glueing’ the group together

+ the community empowerment act and how to benefit from it should be more publicised to communities

+ there is a register of public land available to look through which could be a good starting place for some groups

+ the implications/challenges of accessing funding for communities of interest rather than geography

+ discussions around the positive role on placemaking that Cohousing could have