Ecovillages and tiny houses: can planners keep up with the wave of positive change in the housing landscape? Ecovillages are collaboratively designed communities that encourage sharing of communal spaces, resources and activities. Tiny houses are… tiny stand alone houses. While they both are outside the current planning toolkit, planners are encouraged to get ready for … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
What are we as planners doing to address housing un-affordability for our elder generations…in particular the elder women? There have a been a number of media articles and social media groups highlighting the plight of a growing yet largely unspoken group that are entering homelessness…aging women. Two well presented video articles from SBS Insight bring … Continue reading
The Royal Historical Society of Queensland is hosting their annual seminar on Saturday 2nd September and this year’s topic investigates the important role of preserving heritage values and buildings in the face of development. There are a range of great discussion panels supported by industry professionals, scholars, government representatives who will cover: Brisbane’s early cultural … Continue reading
After reviewing the media again this morning related to the housing trends…more un-affordability, rising house prices, demand exceeding housing availability, deposit needed increased to 20% instead of previous 10%…there was a ray of light that again showed there is possibilities available when looking at housing from a different view – the Tiny House which lends … Continue reading
There are many examples of Ecovillages all around the world. In many cases they are showing repeated triple bottom line wins – ecologically, economically and socially. For inspiration here is a simple video about Ecovillages. What would it take for this to be a widespread initiative in Australia? Continue reading
Passionate University of Queensland researcher Jason Hilder will share a presentation about Co-housing as part of the Sustainable Living Workshop Programme at the Winter Solstice Festival at Northey Street in Brisbane’s Inner North on 17th June. Co-housing is a modern style of communal living that has been shown to be more affordable, social connected and … Continue reading
When people live in a communal like situation they have happier lives. And interesting they also tend to be more caring of their ecological impact. Hmmm. Not a surprise here. Quality of life and happiness in Intentional Communities. Yet why then is the range of modern communal living such as ecovillages, co-housing, co-living, co-operative houses so … Continue reading