In a moment when the world is more connected than ever before, where video calls, likes, and shares zip across continents in seconds, millions of people find themselves trapped in a silent epidemic: loneliness. In May 2023, former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy officially recognized loneliness as a public health epidemic. According to the American Psychiatric Association, 30% of adults in the US experience loneliness with younger people between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four even more susceptible to feelings of isolation. Despite the constant buzz of notifications and an abundance of digital methods to stay in touch, the technology built to bring us closer together has instead accentuated disconnection. One solution may begin in a place where we spend the majority of our time: at home.

Ding! Imagine waiting for the elevator to take you up to your apartment. As the elevator doors open, you are greeted by the neighbor who resides in the unit above yours. The neighbor with whom you coordinate dinner, the neighbor who taught you how to grow mustard greens on the rooftop, the neighbor whose pets you take care of when they go on a business trip, the neighbor whom you turn to whenever personal issues arise—this is not a dream but rather a reality for residents who live in Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing (CHUC) located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. CHUC is much more than the development of an apartment complex; as stated by the architectural designers at Schemata Workshop, it is the “construction of a community that would nurture both the individual and the family.”

Designed by Grace H. Kim, FAIA, one of the founding principals of Schemata Workshop, CHUC is one of the firm’s most notable projects. Built in 2016 and located in the bustling Capitol Hill neighborhood, CHUC is a five-story mixed use building with a commercial-oriented space on the street level and nine residential units occupying the four floors above. From the outside, CHUC seems like a typical high-density residential project. However, the magic of CHUC does not reside in its physical appearance. Rather, the innovation comes from the cohousing model embedded in the building’s design and taken up by its residents.

The term cohousing originated in Denmark in the late 1960s and comes from the Danish term bofællesskaber, which translates to “living communities.” Kim was introduced to the term when she was studying at the Architectural Association in Denmark as a student, and a Danish professor presented a lecture on cohousing. After the lecture, Kim remembers discussing the concept of cohousing with Mike Mariano, now her business partner and husband, and how it would be an ideal way to live. The idea of cohousing began to brew in the 2000s when they recognized how the strong preference for independence in the US was not working when it came to housing. In their eyes, the American Dream did not encourage the idea of collectivism and interdependence.

In 2007, a piece of property on Capitol Hill became available. Capitol Hill was the ideal neighborhood for the couple’s cohousing project due to its proximity to downtown, grocery stores, parks, retail establishments, schools, and access to the arts. As design development began, Schemata Workshop endured a slow design review process due to the project’s lofty ambitions. CHUC went through many design iterations before ground was broken. In the end, the design was a 17,600 square-foot building with one large commercial space and nine residential units. Construction was completed in 2016.

Each unit houses two or three bedrooms, a full kitchen, and living room. The commercial space at street level became the office space for the Schemata Workshop. A central courtyard was the anchor for the design. Due to a small site footprint, a traditional horizontal cohousing experience was unachievable. Therefore, a courtyard was necessary to foster vertical connections and enable sunlight to stream into the residential units.

Eight out of the nine units at CHUC have entry-ways and windows oriented toward the courtyard. The architects carefully crafted the units to ensure that the more public areas such as the kitchens and living rooms were close to the courtyard, while private spaces such as the bedrooms could be tucked away around the corner for privacy. Each unit was designed to be entered from an outdoor balcony that overlooks the courtyard. These balconies were intentionally designed to be much wider than King County building code so that unexpected neighborhood conversation could occur.

Directly adjacent to the base of the courtyard is the Common House. Since each residential unit has its own amenities, the Common House is the space that brings CHUC residents together. The Common House is located on the second floor, serves as a community room, and houses a kitchen and dining area for thirty people. I interviewed Kim about the impact of the Common House at CHUC. In our conversation, Kim reveals how the habit of eating and cooking together as a community creates an opportunity to show appreciation, form deep bonds, support each other during times of difficulty, and remove the transactional feel of relationships. This is what has made cohousing successful and sustainable at CHUC. The following transcript highlights the key points from our conversation.

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COMMON HOUSE: FUNCTIONALITY AND EATING TOGETHER

Excerpts from A Conversation between Skylar Lin and Grace Kim - May 20, 2025

Skylar Lin

So one of the things that piqued my interest during your TED talk—you mentioned eating together. So I understand there is a communal dining kitchen area at the bottom of the courtyard. So I was wondering how, in your point of view, does eating together foster social connections?

Grace Kim

Okay. Why does that happen? So the space that you’re referring to is called the Common House. And every cohousing community has one. They might be different in size, but the point is to have a space that you can have meals together. Not every cohousing community has meals together. But I have found, as I’ve probably been to, over 120 or 230 cohousing communities around the world.

GK 00:15:30:17 - 00:15:52:03

And I will say the ones where people eat together on a regular basis, the greater the frequency, the stronger their community is. And so, I think there’s a word that my mom uses or that exists in Korean that my mom taught me at an early age.

GK 00:15:52:03 - 00:16:14:17

It’s called chung. And it’s basically the closest equivalent to English I would say is like bonding. Right. And bonding occurs. Chung occurs when you’re doing small tasks together. It’s the frequency in the daily routine. You’re not, like, having a meeting. You’re not scheduling time. It’s just over time. As you’re doing work side by side, you build a connection.

GK 00:17:19:09 - 00:17:46:04

And in working together in those teams, you get to know each other. You get to learn about each other’s families, your backgrounds, all of those things. And so that’s kind of part of the great opportunities to build chung. But it also happens at dinner time, like when you’re sitting at a meal, whether you’re going to only be at a meal for fifteen minutes or you’re going to be at the dinner for thirty or forty-five minutes, it’s your choice.

GK 00:17:46:06 - 00:18:05:12

But for whatever duration of time you’re there, you have a chance to interact with your neighbors. And during that time, you might, you know, figure out that you have a shared interest or that you might be catching up. On a difficult week or whatever is going on with you in your life where you might be planning a hiking trip or planning a birthday party or planning something.

GK 00:18:05:14 - 00:18:32:12

And in those times, I think that it’s been interesting to see, I wouldn’t even say friendships, but like a very tight-knit group of connections between individuals. So, like, there is a group of women that do wild swimming, right? They, like, convinced each other over time. To go swimming like, you know, it’s six in the morning in the middle of winter, out in the lake or in the ocean.

GK 00:20:14:04 - 00:20:39:23

It’s not just the eating. Like, eating is nourishment, and, you know, it’s enjoyable. There’s, I would say, to one family, eating is just a means of putting fuel in your body, and that’s all it is for them. But I think for everybody else in our community, the meals, eating and feeding each other, is a love language, is a way of showing love and respect for each other.

GK 00:20:40:01 - 00:21:01:19

And I think that’s true in lots of cultures. So I think, yeah, it’s enjoyable. It’s fun. And it’s a chance to build deeper connections. And that’s why I feel like when you, when I go to visit communities where they don’t have any meals at all or it’s like a once, once a month potluck, I can tell, just by the way people interact with one another.

GK 00:21:01:19 - 00:21:30:23

And the way that they experience each other—I feel like the fewer the meals are, the more transactional the community is. Right. So I feel like, in our community, there aren’t a lot of transactions, meaning like, we don’t pay for the meals, no money changes hands and all. In a lot of other communities, if you have a meal but we cook, we’ll say this meal costs X dollars, right?

GK 00:22:52:18 - 00:23:17:19

It’s more an act of love or care than it is about, like, making sure I get paid back for the things I make for you. And I think in general there’s, I think, income housing in general, there tends to be a lot of sharing. That’s the whole point of living in cohousing. But I think if you can take away anything that feels transactional, we often say in our community that we like to have a mindset of generosity.

GK 00:23:17:21 - 00:23:42:05

So rather than everything being scarce and limited and having a price on things, we think about abundance and being generous. And so, you know, if you have ten guests, that’s fine. If you have no guests, that’s fine. And so, like, rather than worrying about each one of those things, we try to have an attitude of abundance and just everybody can come, everybody can participate.

End Conversation

As CHUC inches closer to its ten-year anniversary, Kim reflects on how far the project has come. In her eyes, CHUC has accomplished many of the goals it was designed for in a more profound way. The low resident turnover rate, regular Common House meals, and a strong connection with neighbors in each unit has validated the core intent of CHUC: constructing a community that would nurture its residents. Relationships within CHUC have been fostered by the community meals organized every other day. Neighbors are no longer strangers, and each resident has become a vital piece of CHUC’s fabric. Within the confines of this urban housing complex is a strong community shaped by the spaces crafted within the project. Whether they are a young couple, an established family, or nearing retirement age, CHUC has provided a framework through intentional design of the courtyard and Common House that encourages residents to connect with each other at a personal level. CHUC is much more than a regular high density building. Instead, it’s an example of a living, breathing community, one where loneliness is dispelled by design.