In spring 2024, looking for inspiration, we visited camping Zomerlicht in the Netherlands, province of Overijssel.
Things we noticed and learned:
The founders of Zomerlicht started out as a group of like-minded families who wanted a place to live outside the busy city-life.
At first, they got together as a CPO group (dutch orgganization form for collectively realizing a coliving buidling) and started looking for plots to realize a building.
This turned out to be a difficult approach, so they got the idea of buying a camp-site, with most of the necessary permits already in place. Permanent living is possible here, as long as the tiny-houses can be removed within 1 day.
From the original 4 families, now only one remains. The current owner explained how difficult it is to cocreate such a place. Divergent needs and expectations led to unbanding of the group.
Important lessons they had in starting the coliving community were the importance of taking ownership, taking responsibility and reciprocity, the willingness to do something back.
If done again, they would have chosen a different form ownership, referring to the work of the Economy Transformers.
The place consists of an old farm house as the main building, where the owners live and which holds a few workshop spaces. Currently, the camp-site is still in it’s old form, with the addition of a few yurts for glamping and yoga.
The owners have ambitious plans to create a beautiful coliving community, with several tiny-houses and event spaces.
