Community Stories Archives - Our Urban Village

During a time of social isolation, cohousing builds community

Residents of Nanaimo’s only intentional community illustrate what living together really means. Do you know your neighbours’ names—first and last? What about their birthdays? Although cities are becoming more dense and technology has made the ability to connect with each other instant, the emotional distance between some people continues to grow. But connection is hardwired …

My Big Cohousing Adventure in Langley

If you’ve ever wondered how one goes about planning, designing and building a cohousing community a recent article posted in the Tyee, may answer some of these questions. Elizabeth Rosenau, a retired pharmacist currently living in Maple Ridge, has joined a group of like minded people who are planning a cohousing project in Langley. The …

Cohousing: The Future of Community and Human Connection

“Capitalism will not bend over backwards to make sure that you have a life of human connection and meaning. It won’t. […] So I’ve learned that we simply have to create the environments in which we want to live. We must build our own villages.” Have a look at Trish Becker-Hafnor’s Ted talk and find …

Happier together

Our Urban Village is proud and excited to be a future part of the pioneering research project Happy Neighbours: Promoting affordability and social wellbeing through multi-unit housing design and programming actions. Happy City will assess the impact of the design on residents’ sociability, sense of belonging, social trust, perceived health and level of engagement before …

4 Great Reasons to Live in a Multigenerational Community

From the beginning, we wanted a multigenerational cohousing community, even though our founding members were in their 50s and 60s. They didn’t have anything against folks their age, but they thought living with diverse ages might be more enriching and a whole lot of fun. Some communities cater to one demographic. One exclusively family-oriented group …

The rise of urban cohousing

For over four decades, over 90% of cohousing communities were in rural and suburban settings. But in the last ten years, more and more cohousing projects are being launched in cities, sometimes even in ultra-urban downtown cores. How did urban cohousing become part of the mix? In the beginning it was rural, all the way …

Can cohousing help young families stay in the city? Maybe.

Many young couples head for the suburbs when their first child comes along, seeking more space and a big backyard. But, many more, we think, would happily trade a long daily commute for city living if there was a viable option. Our cohousing community is offering an alternative for young families who want to stay in Vancouver. …

It takes a community. How BC’s cohousing communities support each other.

OUV is in our final sprint, breaking ground in just a few months. This article is a thank you note to the cohousing communities in British Columbia. Without you, we would not be here today. It’s likely that cohousers everywhere share their experiences with new communities. I have a feeling, though, that BC’s communities have …

Tomo has their Development Permit!

In the last few weeks, Tomo Spaces has received the Development Permit for the project from the City of Vancouver, putting us one step closer to our (literal) “ground-breaking moment”. The next step is to get a Building Permit! We are eagerly anticipating watching the demolition work start sometime this fall.

Workshops. The secret sauce for cohousing communities?

The average time from formation of a cohousing community to move-in is a heart-stopping 5-7 years. Our own community will likely take 6 ½ years. Over that extended period of time life often intrudes with members moving away, personal financial circumstances changing or major external events (like COVID) impacting a project. Even without such challenges, …