Ecovillages and cohousing are types of intentional community living arrangements that bring positive social, ecological and economic solutions to challenges of housing affordability, social breakdown and ecological over consumption. They are fast attracting interest among planners, governments, developers, the media and the public. Yet what was the population and characteristics of these compared to other types of communal living in Australia?

Jason Djalmbu Hilder, Dr Elin Charles-Edwards and Dr Thomas Sigler from UQ SEES joined with Dr Bill Metcalf from Griffith University to investigate the spectrum of community living and introduced analysis of the ABS Census data in this field.

The research found a 42.2% increase in the proportion of the Australian population living communally in the recent decade despite the dominant housing model tailored towards single families. Planners and policy makers are recommended to look deeper at effective communal living arrangements and make legislative changes to support a structured growth in this area.

Want to find out more?  See https://doi.org/10.1080/07293682.2018.1494612