Collective Housing Models:
There are several models of collective housing each with characteristics, benefits and limitations, which must be evaluated based on the community vision, needs and objectives of the sponsors and communities. The models can also overlap, for example many well known international cohousing examples are cooperatives. The major models are:
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Papakāinga are traditional Māori housing projects often located on collectively owned Māori land. Dr Michael Austin notes that in papakāinga and marae-based housing we have an exemplary indigenous community model that integrates land held in common with shared facilities, housing, and highly functioning social structures. There is a contemporary renaissance of papakāinga housing projects and much to learn from the experience of different iwi and whānau who are in the process of establishing housing on commonly owned land.
Well known examples include Te Aro Pa Apts, Kotuktuku for the Mahitahi Kainga Trust, and the Kaianga Tuatahi for Ngati Whatua O Oraki.
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Cohousing is an elective community of self-contained houses or apartments that also share common space and facilities, such as a common lounge, kitchen, dining, laundry, community garden, and storage. There is a great diversity of types of cohousing communities as evident in Michael LaFonds key text Cohousing Cultures. Key to understanding this diversity is recognising the two main types of cohousing project.
The first is the baugruppen (building group) model, which focuses on collective building procurement with the design efficiently providing some shared amenities. Baugruppen examples include Urban Habitat, Buckley Road Cohousing and Nightingale Housing in Melbourne.
The second type of cohousing is the baugemeinschaft (building community) model, which emphasises the social component of housing, the building of a community that live together through the process of building housing together. Baugemeinschaft examples include Earthsong, Delhi Village and Toiora Cohousing.
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Co-living is investor-owned, multiple-occupancy residential housing with some shared living components. It is usually built to rent and includes rental hostels, rental-serviced accommodation units with some shared spaces, and cluster apartments. Individuals and investors own co-living accommodation, with the focus being the provision of efficient, small, short-term residential tenancies that have high investment yields. Co-living typically results in minimal amounts of individually allocated space used for periodic or short term occupancy, with access to shared spaces such as lounges, kitchens, dining rooms, and coworking spaces.
A local example of co-living is The Coh in Auckland.
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In Aotearoa New Zealand, cooperatives are user-owned and controlled businesses where benefits are derived and distributed equitably, based on use. Cooperative housing members acquire shares in a cooperative, and in turn receive a lifelong security of tenure, which can be passed onto children. Cooperatives have shared ownership of land and housing. Members typically pool their resources in a shared-ownership, not-for-profit company. In cooperative housing, the investors are the users. We have few cooperatives here. Our cooperative legislation is targeted at producer cooperatives and urgently needs a specific housing (consumer cooperative) section to provide the minimum security, guarantees and long term protection available in the German speaking countries where cooperatives and their value have achieved UNESCO World Heritage status.
For example Riverside Community, Peterborough in Christchurch and the CLOser project that was proposed in Kati Kati. See also: Re-socialising Aotearoa New Zealand Housing, by Mark Southcombe, in Counterfutures no. 9: Housing
