ABSTRACT
Co-housing has today become a realistic housing option for seniors in Europe, as well as other parts of the world such as North America, Australia and Japan. The concept became extremely popular when the ‘baby boomers’ – the generation born after 1946 – reached retirement age. They represent a new generation of pensioners: in good health, and comparatively better off and better educated than the generations preceding them (Haber 2009; Farges et al. 2011). Above all, this is the generation that lived through, or participated in, the major social changes of the 1970s (feminism, ecology, etc.) and therefore expresses different ideas and demands on how to age (Bruns et al. 2007; Thomas and Blanchard 2009). They reject passivity and solitude, all too often associated with the old age experience of their parent’s generation, and desire social ties and participation. The strong demand for a society based on solidarity (family, neighbourhood, community) and active citizenship expressed by this generation is furthermore actively encouraged by public authorities faced with the welfare state in crisis. The combination of the above factors has made the time ripe for co-housing, based on the values of solidarity, mutual assistance and participative management, to take off.
