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 …
Tomo House is being built to Passive House principles which fits well with our cohousing community’s commitment to live as sustainably as we can. The positive impacts of this type of construction were brought home to us recently when we had a workshop on how Passive House is being applied specifically within Tomo House. This …
In 2017 Our Urban Village began a partnership with innovative developers, Tomo (formerly known as Take Root) to build a cohousing community using a model that hadn’t been tried before in North America. OUV’s founders were struggling to find a way to build cohousing in one of North America’s priciest housing markets. When the cost …
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 …
We are thrilled that our future home, TOMO House, was discussed during a recent piece on CBC’s “Spark”, a show that explores technology innovation and design in our daily lives. The host, Nora Young, was leading a discussion of what “home” will look like in 50 years alongside Sonia Solicari from the UK’s Museum of …
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 …
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. …
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 …
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 …
Read more Five reasons urban cohousing isn’t more affordable
“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 …