Architectural Internship
World-leading cohousing company offers 6 Months internship
The Cohousing Company – Charles Durrett’s Architectural Office
Nevada City, California, USA
Ready to Make a Difference?
The Cohousing Company, a renowned architecture firm that brought cohousing to the U.S., is offering a unique opportunity to join their team for a paid 6-month internship in 2026. The post is suitable for architects, urban designers, planners and housing professionals at any stage of their career, committed to immersing themselves in cohousing with a view to applying the processes and practices of cohousing to their work. While we are architects by trade, we approach housing from a very anthropological/sociological point of view. So we welcome all aspiring architecture, planning, engineering, as well as anthropology, sociology, or business-minded folks to apply to our 6-Month paid internship, where you will be working for 40 hours a week.
Charles Durrett is a world-leading architect and author of 16 books about cohousing with 40 years’ experience developing cohousing communities across the USA. Charles coined the term “cohousing” following years of immersion alongside leading Danish architects in the 1980s where the concept originated. This is your chance to learn from the most successful cohousing firm in America and use your talent to make beautiful, well-built, environmentally and socially-friendly communities.
The internship program has been running since 1989 and we have had over 60 interns from about 40 countries.
Regarding accommodation, there may be opportunities to live in a cohousing community or live independently in town in Nevada City, CA.
Experience and Expectations
We expect that you come to the internship with basic drafting and architectural presentation skills. We are a Macintosh office and use Vectorworks, SketchUp, Photoshop and InDesign – it is important that you know these programs prior to interning here, at least the basics. Vectorworks has a free one-month trial: if accepted, we would ask that you utilize this monthlong trial period to learn Vectorworks prior to starting the internship. If a foreign student, we would also ask that you be familiar with the feet and inches system, and of course to be fluent in English.
The internship is designed for someone with an undergraduate or Master’s degree, though we are open to current undergraduate students as well. Our interns are sometimes a practicing architect and often after they have started working in the studios of other architects. We have had interns just out of college, and interns who have already practiced architecture for many years—both have been successful.
Applicants are recommended to have read and be familiar with Charles’ recent book Cohousing Communities: Designing for High-Functioning Neighborhoods, Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities and/or Neuro-Inclusive Community Design: Lessons from Sólheimar Ecovillage. Please visit our website at www.cohousingco.com to see our new housing projects, as well as our latest literature projects.
The Cohousing Company is offering a rolling application process, please send a resume, cover letter, and portfolio expressing interest in learning about cohousing and proposed starting dates, to charles.durrett@cohousingco.com
charles.durrett@cohousingco.com
530-265-9980