Inspiration

Old-school campus co-ops:

• University Students Cooperative Association (USCA) in Berkeley, CA

Born in the Great Depression, the USCA has long recognized the importance of its role in helping the less advantaged in our society gain access to a university education and providing support for those of diverse backgrounds. Fourteen Cal students founded the USCA in 1933 with help from Stiles Hall and a $500 loan from the Club House Fund of the University. Inspired and sponsored by YMCA (Stiles Hall) director Harry Kingman, the students were able to persuade community member Annie Dickson to rent a boarding housing where the students paid rent and did workshifts, combining their resources to live cost effectively. The concept was so successful that the students built up capital working during the summer of 1933 to acquire an old fraternity to house and feed 50 students, and by the summer of 1934 acquired a second fraternity house. By the end of 1934, the two houses incorporated as a non-profit co-op association and had succeeded to the point of being able to lease a 200-person apartment house for further expansion.

Today the USCA houses 1300 students in 15 Houses (which include converted hotels, groupings of adjacent houses run as a single House, converted mansions, and two apartment complexes).

Other co-ops and co-op organisations:

• Cooperative Roots was founded by students who had graduated and could no longer live in the USCA co-ops. Cooperative Roots has one co-op house delightfully named Fort Awesome, that is solar powered, and they keep chickens (for eggs) and bees (for honey), have a solar-heated hot tub made out of an old wine cask, and a geodesic dome in the backyard. Awesome, indeed!
  

• Nickel City co-op
  

• Barrington Collective is another co-op organisation in Berkeley, CA. They run an incredible "Free Skool" which has in the past included workshops/skillshare on topics such as bike repair, alternative education/ non-coercive education, mechanics and car maintenance, lockpicking, computer literacy offered in spanish, art, drama, and science classes for kids ages 10-18, spanish, french, self defense, beekeeping, photography, bike trailer making, permaculture/sustainability, carpentry, plumbing, electronics and electrical wiring, sewing/tayloring, grant writing, green building, eco developing, knot tying, welding, parenting/non-coercive childcare, and urban/medicinal/culinary gardening. hot! They also publish the San Francisco Bay Area Cooperative Housing Directory.

Swedish Nations

Black Mountain College

Buckminster Fuller — "Making the world's available resources serve one hundred percent of an exploding population can only be accomplished by a boldly accelerated design revolution."

Chez Jean in Montreal

Ant Farm, publishers of the Inflatocookbook

Project-oriented houses:

• TEP House at MIT — one of my favorite things is the "Tepophone Closet," not to mention the Foam Room.
  

• Blacker House at Caltech
  

• Technology House at Brown University
  

• CoRE at Binghamton Univeristy (SUNY)

Color in your Cheeks, by The Mountain Goats (ref):

 he drove from in from mexicali, no worse for wear.
 money to burn, time to kill.
 but five minutes looking in his eyes and we all knew he
 was broken pretty bad, so we gave him what we had.
 we cleared a space for him to sleep in,
 and we let the silence that's our trademark
 make its presence felt.
 come on in, we haven't slept for weeks.
 drink some of this. it'll put color in your cheeks.

 they came in by the dozens, walking or crawling.
 some were bright-eyed.
 some were dead on their feet.
 and they came from zimbabwe,
 or from soviet, georgia.
 east saint louis, or from paris, or they lived across the street.
 but they came, and when they'd finally made it here,
 it was the least that we could do to make our welcome clear.
 come on in, we haven't slept for weeks.
 drink some of this. it'll put color in your cheeks.

The Oscar Wilde House —

The Oscar Wilde House is wickedly inspired, an ideal setting for all individuals seeking to live an exquisite life. Aptly named after the brilliant Irish writer and social critic, persecuted for his queer offenses in the Victorian age, the house is an open theatre for poetry, drama, wit, and aesthetic subversion. When coming to visit Wilde, look for the rainbow flag and the largest golden nugget in California. As America’s first gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender theme house, the Wilde house offers a haven of tolerance for those who transcend traditional sexual orientation and gender identity. However, Wilde welcomes and lavishes affection upon all open-minded residents and guests, regardless of sexual orientation.

Our beloved guests often have a hard time resisting Wilde as a second home. Understandably so, as a typical day might include: a communal pancake breakfast prepared in our large and sparkling-clean kitchen, several hours of bare-chested sun worship on the rooftop with a full spectrum of the Bay Area’s delights in view, or relaxation in our vast, rustic living room with a game of billiards, the mood set with music on the piano—one of the best in the USCA. Frequent trips to the dining room for decadent treats and conversation become part of the daily routine. For evening stimulation, one may retreat to the Max Bader Memorial Alumni room, with dual use as the Oasis a collective meditation box, and as the guestroom. Also, the underground offers affordable laundry facilities and a secluded study room, perfect for refining one’s cleanliness and intellect, respectively. While you’re down there, don’t forget to experience the eternal celebration and infinite possibility of room 23. We invite you to join us at the Wilde House. Brimming with eccentricity, our green-trim pleasure dome is an experiment in joy and creative living.