Peterborough Housing Cooperative
Situated in inner-city Ōtautahi (Christchurch), Peterborough Co-op is seven households in a row with joined-up back yards. It started in 1982.
Fences were removed. The houses were renovated so their entrance, living room and kitchens open onto their backyard, generally separated from their neighbours by shrubs. The backyards butt onto a large common back yard and common sheds. The 2011 earthquake terminally damaged all the houses. |
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Peterborough Pocket Neighbourhood Site Plan
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Tour The Rebuild
Peterborough Housing Cooperative is being rebuilt now, after being extensively damaged in the 2011 earthquake. It will be finished in May 2020.
The new pocket neighbourhood has 15 dwellings cluster around a large common courtyard. Plus a common house/education centre, and adjoining section for parking. You are able to view the build from the footpath at 179 Peterborough Street, Central City, Christchurch. No on-site tours are currently available until the new pocket neighbourhood is finished. |
Resident Management
Co-operative enterprises are those controlled and managed by their residents, workers, or consumers. The residents run the cooperative, and decisions are made by consensus.
Peterborough has a common lounge, bike shed, laundry, tool shed, vaccuum cleaner, give-away collection, garages, picnic tables, bee hives, basketball hoop, compost bins, trailer, lawn-mower and tree-hut. |
Weekly Pot Luck Dinner
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Annual Christmas Water Fight
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Sense of Community
Peterborough gives a sense of extended family-like ties. Each household is in charge of itself, but is also part of something bigger. Formally this consists of a weekly pot-luck dinner in the common lounge or outside in summer. Residents also have a monthly working-bee for house and yard upkeep.
Informal chats are probably more significant (and just being able to borrow a cup of sugar). It's much like how neighbourhood's used to be. |