Cohousing 101 & An Architects Perspective on Creating Cohousing

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Sunday, January 19th, 2020
11:30 AM to 1:30 PM

Dreaming of living in community? In Victoria? In walking/cycling distance to most amenities? Ready to make it happen?

Cohousing neighbourhoods are built and designed for community living with self contained, privately owned homes and extensive common facilities. They combine the autonomy of private dwellings with the advantages of shared resources and community living. Join us to learn more and work towards making this inner-city dream a reality. Cohousing 101 will cover what urban cohousing is, what it is not, and how we as a group can work together to build it.

In our second hour, Graeme Verhulst will discuss the logistics of developing a cohousing project. Despite the many serious aspects to it, this endeavour can be approached with enthusiasm and a sense of fun. The process can be extremely rewarding, particularly as you see the project that your group envisioned and designed come to fruition. However, building is complicated and expensive, and involves a huge array of permits, contracts, and stakeholders. It can only be fun if you embark on a project with eyes wide open to the costs, risks, and potential pitfalls. This talk will introduce some of these factors, as they pertain to our region.

Graeme Verhulst is the principal architect at Waymark Architecture. He has a long held interest in Cohousing, has visited cohousing developments in northern Europe as well as across North America, and focused his architectural thesis on the design of a cohousing project. His firm is committed to designing spaces that meet rigorous environmental standards, including building for Passive House certification