International Journal of Education and Social Science (IJESS)

As the lack of sense of community has become a prevalent trait of suburban landscape in the United States, two alternative housing types (cohousing and new urbanist developments) have emerged with claims to fix that problem through social and spatial organizations they provide. Lack of privacy, on the other hand, has been discussed as a feature of these communal living schemes, which encourage social interaction. In this study, the two aforementioned housing types are compared in regards to the sense of privacy and community they accommodate for the resident women. A total of 29 women were interviewed. Similarity of claimed intentions to enhance a sense of community is the reason for comparing cohousing and new urbanist developments, although the results of this study indicate that the resident women’s experiences of privacy and community differ in these two housing types.