Sunflower Cohousing

Mission: Encouraging others to understand the benefits of following a healthy, mutually supportive, sustainable lifestyle.

From www.ic.org/directory/sunflower-cohousing/:

Sunflower Cohousing currently has four members, and we are looking for others to join us in an environmentally conscious cohousing project. We have recently purchased a property in a small hamlet near Champagne-Mouton in France, where there is an infant’s school, doctor, pharmacy, post office, and supermarket. The property comprises a modernised 2-bedroomed house, with stone barns on both sides and a hangar, all facing into a central grassed courtyard.

We have started to convert one of the barns into 2 small, self-contained cottage-style houses. We also have consent for 3 additional houses, and plans for 2 larger family dwellings. Each house will have its own private garden space to the rear, and a semi-private patio area to the front, facing onto the courtyard. The new houses are all highly insulated, with solar heating pipes under the tiles of a sealed roofing system, and with wood-fired back-boilers producing heat and hot water from regenerative sources.

One section of the barns will house a community building, with a larger kitchen and dining/meeting area, craft room, a laundry, office space, and additional bedroom space for visitors. There is also an existing workshop area, machinery bay, and garden tool workshop, all of which will be incorporated into the community space.

We have started to create a community vegetable garden (our potager) and a new orchard in an adjoining 4 acre field which is also owned by the community. We intend to keep a small selection of livestock on this field, to complement the chickens and geese that already share our space.

We are working towards an ecologically friendly lifestyle, and to be self-sufficient where possible, but we also recognise that true self-sufficiency is very labour intensive, and so we try to achieve a sensible balance in order that we may also enjoy life. We have a range of systems already in place – composting bins, worm bins, aquaponics, vegetable and fruit production – and are constantly looking at ways to improve upon our arrangements but also to minimise our impact on the surrounding countryside.
ᅠ
Between us, we have gained experience in developing permaculture systems and organic practices in the UK and Spain, in both wet and arid conditions and would be looking to introduce and expand upon those techniques as part of the production of food for the community. We also have a wide range of practical and creative skills, such as building, IT, animal husbandry, fleece spinning, weaving and knitting, willow weaving, preserving, sewing, dying, and basket making.

We are looking for others with a similar outlook on life to come and join us. Investing members will be asked to match our own investment to date (we are not looking to make a profit), and will in return receive an equal share and an equal say in the ownership and development of the community as a whole. We will also be constructing houses to rent for social members who will have an equal say and commitment to the community save for voting on capital expenditure.

A service of the Data Commons Co-op. The project has been supported by Equal Exchange, the Cooperative Charitable Trust, the USDA, and many others - thank you! Tech volunteers over the years include: Benjamin Bradley with support from GAIA Host. Ben Mauer with support from Quilted. Paul Fitzpatrick. Ronin Tech Collective, Brattleboro Tech Collective, Sligo Computer Services. Jason Lemieux. Default map tiles courtesy of MapQuest. Default map data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA.