Advice

If you want to develop community, a housing co-operative, eco-village, pocket neighbourhood, or cohousing project, come and visit. We are in central Christchurch, New Zealand.

We will provide you with a personalised advice session about how to design your housing initiative to develop community.

Advice includes

• Appropriate legal structures
• Design guidelines
• Living next to each other guidelines
• We will sketch you a site plan

Email Advice Request

UK Cohousing Network Graphic

Design Guidelines

Follow these guidelines to design neighbourhoods for people and develop a sense of community.

1. Cluster Households
2. Put Cars on the Side
3. Graduate Private to Public Space
4. Extensive Common Facilities
5. Intentional Resident Participation

Design Principles

Support

Groups who are actively forming a new cooperative, cohousing, tiny house village, ecovillage or community are welcome to use our meeting room at no cost. Events must be non-profit. ​

They can also book the cafe space for day planning events, if its available. 

Email Advice Request

Experience Community

If you wish to set up a community and experience how it works, you're welcome to stay in our Guest room for a few days, if its available.

Payment is by Koha.

Contact Jo to book the room.

Guest Room Enquiry

Recommended Resources

Creating Cohousing
A great guide for designing your new neighbourhood for people. Architects' Charles and Kathryn both live in purpose designed neighbourhoods, have visited hundreds, and developed over 50. We chose Charles go provide us with a concept plan for our rebuild.

Pocket Neighourhoods
This design guide targets smaller scaled developments of 8 to 15 dwellings. Easy to read design principles.

Utopianz
A guide to Intentional Communities in New Zealand. It shows the diverse attempts to build communities. We helped fund its publication to record New Zealand's history.

Cohousing New Zealand
A website showing the different cohousing communities around New Zealand. Cohousing is the latest popular approach to designing for community. The website features Auckland's Earthsong, and Dunedin's High Street cohousing neighbourhoods.
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