Pioneer Valley Cohousing, Amherst, Massachusetts, from the series "Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America"

About this artwork

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Joel Sternfeld

Title

Pioneer Valley Cohousing, Amherst, Massachusetts, from the series "Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America"

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 2004

Medium

Chromogenic print

Inscriptions

No markings recto or verso Cohousing is a concept that originated in Denmark and came to the US in the late 1980s. The Communities Directory describes it as an attempt to bridge the gap between two concepts: home as a place of privacy and autonomy, and home as a place rooted in a web of relationships in a community. Cohousing has also been described as a cross between a commune and a condominium. Members own their own homes, earn and keep their own incomes, and do not have a shared community economy. In the planning of a typical cohousing community, would-be residents are involved in the design of the site and structures. Cars are almost always kept on the periphery, and the design encourages as much human interaction as possible. The community is anchored by a common house—in many cohousing communities the common house is seen from the front door of each home so that it becomes part of a personal sense of space. Cohousing communities emphasize resident self-management and participation in the maintenance of the community. Pioneer Valley began in 1989 with an advertisement in a local newspaper seeking families and individuals interested in building a cohousing community. After five years of planning and building, eighty-four members moved into their homes. The forty-five-hundred square-foot common house seen in this photograph beyond the community garden has a kitchen, a dining room large enough for all residents to share common meals, a living room, a small meeting room, a library, a children’s room and two guest rooms. There is also a laundry room, an exercise room, a root cellar, a refrigerator for milk and eggs from the community’s common cow and chickens, a sauna and some storage space. From the portfolio, Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America, 1982–2005

Dimensions

Image: 26.5 × 33.2 cm (10 7/16 × 13 1/8 in.); Paper: 27.9 × 35.5 cm (11 × 14 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Ralph and Nancy Segall

Reference Number

2008.772

Extended information about this artwork

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