Our Urban Village, a Vancouver Cohousing Community

Developer Mark Shieh sees shared living spaces as a way to bring fractured communities together

Mark Shieh understands the power of transformative spaces — he started his career working as an Imagineer for the Walt Disney Company, designing theme parks. “I still have a little of that pixie dust in me,” he says, recalling how transfixed he was by the magic of Disney’s parks and how they felt like the …

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6 ways cohousing saves money (in the long run)

It is nearly impossible to build urban cohousing below market price. In a previous article we highlighted the reasons why: astronomical land costs, expensive common space, smaller communities, inexperience of cohousers and expensive change orders during the building process. But there are other savings for families thinking about cohousing to consider. Cohousers share a lot …

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Viking adventurer

Carol’s Norwegian roots are obvious in her fair complexion and height, but the wandering spirit of her Scandanavian ancestors wasn’t apparent in the first years of her life. “We lived on a farm in Saskatchewan and regularly saw our extended family. Chickens, farm animals, open space — it was a wonderful childhood,” she says. When …

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Excavation underway

In the past few weeks our project has gone from the removal of the single family home on the site to a giant hole in the ground. It’s been astonishing to see how quickly progress has been made. First a digger appeared on site and next thing you know, there’s a hole in the ground. …

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Urban vs rural

My friend Cathy and I ride our bikes along the streets of Vancouver often and find ourselves admiring various houses and have concluded that we suffer from “lot” envy. It’s disheartening to see huge lots with a single family home. We’re constantly comparing those lot sizes to our future development. On Instagram and Facebook, I’ve …

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Five reasons urban cohousing isn’t more affordable

We’ve attended many presentations about making cohousing more affordable. People love the idea of knowing their neighbours, breaking bread together and having ongoing relationships. Sadly, the vast majority of cohousing remains unaffordable for folks who can’t pay market rates. Why can’t prices be lower? In urban settings, land costs. And it costs a lot. Our …

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The accidental cohousers

“We are not planners,” says Julia. When she saw the notice for a cohousing info session she thought, “It’s a couple of blocks from our house, I really don’t know anything about cohousing and it sounds sort of interesting. Why not?”  She and Lee packed up their new baby and their three year old and …

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