A cohousingcommunity is a type of intentional community composed of private homes supplemented by shared facilities. The community is planned, owned and managed by the residents – who also share activities which may include cooking, dining, child care, gardening, and governance of the community. Common facilities may include a kitchen, dining room, laundry, child care facilities, offices, internet access, guest rooms, and recreational features.

Cohousing facilitates interaction among neighbors for social, practical benefits, economic and environmental benefit.

In describing New York City's first co-housing project, a recent New York Times article said co-housing "speaks to people who want to own an apartment but not feel shut off by it, lost in an impersonal city."

The modern theory of cohousing originated in Denmark in the 1960s among groups of families who were dissatisfied with existing housing and communities that they felt did not meet their needs. Bodil Graae wrote a newspaper article titled "Children Should Have One Hundred Parents," spurring a group of 50 families to organize around a community project in 1967. This group developed the cohousing project Sættedammen, which is the oldest known modern cohousing community in the world. Another key organizer was Jan Gudmand Høyer who drew inspiration from his architectural studies at Harvard and interaction with experimental U.S. communities of the era. He published the article "The Missing Link between Utopia and the Dated Single Family House" in 1968, converging a second group.

Charles Durrett is an American architect and author based in Nevada City, California. With his wife, Kathryn McCamant, he is credited with coining the English term cohousing and introducing the cohousing model for use in North America. (Cohousing is a type of intentional community composed of small private homes with full kitchens, supplemented by extensive common facilities. A cohousing community is planned, owned and managed by the residents, groups of people who want more interaction with their neighbours.) In recent years he has focused on cohousing for older persons.

With his wife, he designed Muir Commons, the first cohousing community in North America, and has designed or consulted on the design of over 50 cohousing communities in North America. He has also consulted on many other cohousing projects around the world.

He is a major proponent of senior cohousing, also known as elder cohousing, which are residential communities specifically designed for seniors. There are at least three senior cohousing communities in the U.S., one each in California, Colorado, and Virginia. More are in planning, according to Durrett. According to an American Association of Retired Persons representative, senior cohousing is "very interesting niche housing" that is needed as an option.