News & Events

Most multi-family housing projects have amenity rooms, but with the cost of land rising and new units getting smaller, many of these common areas are being downsized. Often they are only 450 square feet. “You put in a few exercise bikes and you’re done,” said Vancouver architect Marianne Amodio. “They are getting smaller and smaller.” …

Read more Architects and planners aim to create family-friendly apartment housing in the city

Multi-family housing collaboration Can we design multi-family housing to nurture strong, supportive social relationships? Hundreds of hours of research led us to believe the answer is Yes. Tomo House brings this idea to life. Tomo House has brought Happy City into a unique collaboration with an enlightened developer (Take Root), a creative design team (Lanefab …

Read more Tomo on Main

The 2018 Global Happiness Policy Report is out. This time, the report contains practical solutions for governments and cities interested in boosting wellbeing. We were thrilled to be asked to contribute to this report as part of the sub-council on Happy Cities. We are proud to say that we were able to infuse the report …

Read more Infusing equity into the World Happiness Report

James Chamberlain grew up in a rural area outside Abbotsford, while his husband, Jean-Marie Russell, was raised in a small town in northern Quebec. They’ve lived in Vancouver for decades — for the past 20 years in a strata property they own in a three-unit complex near Vancouver General Hospital. But the neighbourhood has changed …

Read more ‘Cohousing lite’ enters the Vancouver housing conversation

On February 1, the public will get a chance to learn more about a new cohousing project in Vancouver. It’s called the Tomo House, and it’s proposed to be developed at the southwest corner of Main Street and Ontario Place. Tomo stands for ‘together more’, and according to the developer working with a group of …

Read more What’s behind the Tomo name of a new Vancouver cohousing project

A unique housing project dubbed “co-housing light” is proposed for the corner of Main Street and Ontario Place, between East 41st and 42nd avenues. Tomo House will have 12 residential units, four of which will be “affordable ownership” units, as well as nine parking spaces and 15 bicycle parking stalls. The project aims to bring …

Read more Main Street “co-housing light” project aims to bring residents together

Mike Lang is accustomed to small apartments with exorbitant rental and purchase prices — he recently returned to Vancouver from living in Hong Kong, one of the most expensive cities in the world. So while he and his wife Cherie consider the recent acceleration in the city’s housing market “ridiculous” and not in any way …

Read more Prospective home owners adopt ‘cohousing lite’ model