Sustainability:
Collective housing development presents an excellent opportunity for sustainable housing development. The following headings outline some of the opportunities to improve sustainability through collective housing:
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Eco villages are suburban or rural low to medium density, environmentally focused housing clusters. Ecovillage communities prioritise sustainable design, construction and living. They range from high efficiency medium density dwellings to low density rural dwellings. Many have a permaculture focus with food forests, wetlands, communal and individual gardens and associated commonly owned farms. See also: Quaker Settlement and Earthsong
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The dominant builder as developer housing model in Aotearoa New Zealand has limited incentives to go beyond building code minimum requirements for sustainability and operational efficiency. Collective housing can place a focus on these. The beneficiaries are likely to be the future occupants who have a longer term more ethical approach. Any improvement in collective housing performance and economy over time will be felt by those who are funding it.
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It is common for collective housing projects to collect and share infrastructure establishment and running costs such as electricity, greywater, or data supply and use. There can be considerable ongoing savings by sharing utility supply and managing distribution within the community.
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Collective housing design usually creates efficient smaller than average individual house designs typically without repeated bathrooms and with carefully considered common spaces. This is possible because of the shared access to communal or shared facilities. This often leads to claims that collective housing is more economic than equivalent private housing and it can be. It can also be less efficient depending on the size of the community and the extent of common space design which must also be considered. Baugruppen CoHousing models like Nightingale Evergreen are good examples of how to efficiently balance the extent of individual and common areas in effect minimising the shared space to the essential.
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It is common internationally to adapt, remodel and subdivide large houses or buildings into collective housing units often referred to in the UK as ‘Big Houses’. This can be a cost effective way to create housing clusters within an existing structure. Relocating, upgrading and repurposing existing housing as a community cluster in whole or in part is also a sustainable and affordable option at lower densities. For example Delhi Village Cohousing in Whanganui combines existing and new housing as a means to create community diversity and address material sustainability.
