Sættedammen
cohousing community in Denmark
Sættedammen is a cohousing community in New Hammersholt, Denmark.
Established 1972, it is the world's first community defined as modern cohousing, following a path similar to the founders of Bryn Gweled Homesteads in the US 1940's.
The community comprises approximately 60 adults and 20 children in 27 independent households.
Sættedammen is an open, non-dogmatic community, based on social activities (various interest groups, a daily common dinner, common celebration of holidays and cultural events).
History
In the mid 1960's, Jan Gudmand-Høyer and a small group of friends bought a building on the outskirts of Copenhagen, in the hope of living more communally. This was short-lived due to neighbours' concerns that increased numbers of children in the area would make a lot of noise. However, media coverage drew attention to this alternative concept of living, and interest grew, expanding the initial group to 2 cohousing communities.
Sættedammen was designed by architects Theo Mountain and Palle Dyreborg in 1967, and opened in 1972.
A second cohousing project, Skråplanet opened in 1973, followed by other cohousing communities.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Sættedammen” is cohousing community in Denmark. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Sættedammen, cohousing and community, not as a finished interpretation.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7665820. The first chronological checks are 1972, 1940, 1960 and 1967.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sættedammen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.