We need to talk about new ways of living

More than 250 people attended the first talk, “Co-housing Catch Up”, where the audience heard about the recent Co-housing Hui in Wellington, which was also very popular. 

Architect Thom Gill updated the audience on the progress on the Cohaus, an innovative 20-unit apartment project in the heart of Grey Lynn, designed and financed by the people who will live in it.

The development, which will have shared gardens, laundry facilities, guest room, a garden house and a common room, represents a serious step forward for cohousing in New Zealand. It was awarded resource consent in December last year.

Greer O’Donell of the Urban Advisory and Tim Gummers of Cohousing NZ, also talked about their involvement with co-housing projects in New Zealand.

The biannual series, Fast Forward, aims to foster debate, discussion and development within the disciplines of architecture, urban design and urban planning. This semester it will continue to focus on the question: How can we do medium density well?

“We have a housing crisis throughout New Zealand and we need to find better ways of building and accommodating our people," says Bill McKay, senior lecturer, School of Architecture. "In Auckland the Unitary plan will focus on increasing density: growing up rather than out. Less suburban sprawl, more people living closer together, on good public transport routes.

"And our diverse population wants a better range of accommodation types closer to where they work and play. But we need to handle that very carefully and that’s what this series is about: ensuring quality." 

Upcoming topics include medium density design for Māori, tiny houses and the work of the New Zealand Green Building Council. Andrew Maynard, of the Melbourne firm Maynard Architects, will talk about his role in the first Nightingale project which, in addition to being community-orientated, was the first residential building in Australia to be 100 percent fossil fuel free and carbon neutral.

Find out more about Fast Forward Autumn 2019