Have you ever wondered what it’s like to develop your own multi-unit housing? How about living in a social community where you commit to making decisions together, sharing communal meals, and supporting your neighbours? On May 30, Happy Cities hosted a webinar with the project team and community behind Our Urban Village—Vancouver’s newest cohousing community—to …
Housing stories in B.C. are often about the lack of housing or the lack of affordability. However Vancouver has another serious problem – social isolation. This week we are taking a look at the diverse ways people live in this province. CBC’s Shivani Joshi took a tour of Our Urban Village, a cohousing project in …
Our incredible project partners, Happy Cities, have just completed their landmark research study on Our Urban Village called The Happier Missing Middle. This report documents our journey from our ‘business as usual’ lives to living in a cohousing community. Our community has always been a multi-faceted project: building our building and weaving our community fabric. …
Read more Our Urban Village: A new model for social, missing middle housing?
We won! Our nomination was successful and our home has been awarded a GRAY Awards in the Breakout Category, Visionary. The GRAY awards, the international design competition, is the premier destination for recognizing creative excellence culminating with the industry’s most exciting celebration of the year. View list of winners
Great news! Our home been nominated as a finalist in the 7th Annual GRAY Awards: Breakout Category, Visionary (3rd project listed). See below! Read full article
With the snip of a pair of large, shiny scissors, four-year-old Leo cut the ribbon to officially open Our Urban Village, the co-housing project where he lives with his parents. “We are very social and we also like the idea of getting to know our neighbours and doing activities with them. And also getting Leo …
Read more South Main co-housing project welcomes residents in search of community
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 …
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 …
One of the great things about cohousing is that you get to know your neighbours before you move in. It takes time to build a cohousing project. But during that period, you’re forging friendships with the people you’ll be living with later. Here are just a few things our community members share. Sharing skills When …
For Tara Gallen, it started with a cargo bike. Ms. Gallen was looking through a Facebook page for families who bike and saw mention of a co-housing style project that was cargo-bike friendly. Because cargo bikes are wide and awkward, they don’t fit into the average bike storage room. Tomo House, on Vancouver’s Main Street, …