The tiny house movement is gaining momentum as rental and house costs rise but where do people put their tiny homes where they can also have a sense of belonging, connection, and security?

And how to get financing for a tiny home when lenders are so few and risk averse?

Would you say that you feel a calling and a burning flame inside you to create an amazing place to live for yourself and others? That you’re passionate about housing that serves a bigger purpose and creates a sense of community?

I was invited to be a guest on the Unbox Your Gift podcast where Rita interviews people who have turned their passion [...]

Collective Housing, whether it be co-housing, ecovillages, tiny home village, or similarly values-driven housing developments and neighbourhoods, are by their very nature more climate-resilient.

Why are collective housing projects more climate-resilient than conventional housing? For so many reasons [...]

Developing a socially-connected, sustainable, and affordable housing community from inception to built-reality requires much more than a Property Developer or Property Project Management degree, the aspect I would call Built & Structure Systems — it requires two other main knowledge areas: Personal and Collective Leadership Systems as well as Regenerative Design Systems [...]

Self understanding is not a self assured position of ‘I am sorted’. But more a fluid state of observation and when required, of inquiry.

Self understanding gives one deeper insight into one's inner narrative and more compassion for oneself and others [...]

I’m quite intrigued by the question: What does it take to create a new kind of housing system — one that creates more connections with people, that stewards nature and our planet, and that is affordable for people to buy or rent into?
Long ago, while studying about social change for my Master’s degree, I learned that the most effective way to make social change[...]

I have been contracted by Shama Hamilon Ethnic Women Trust to assist with a research project to discover what would enable more housing that is for, by, and with women, particularly ethnic women, and what are the challenges.

Shama feels called to make a positive impact within the housing sector that will result in better housing and[...]

I have just added a section to the Common Ground website called “Inspiring Communities and Housing Projects” which is to shine a light on the great housing idea you’re forming or the already formed housing community where you live.

There’s not really any one place where you can find about what’s going on  [...]

Most of us would agree that we have a housing problem—in fact many housing problems: high cost to buy and to rent, lack of available rentals, gentrification in many towns and cities, crappy building design leaving us cold and damp, neighbourhood designs that leave people feeling isolated, high levels of waste from the construction of housing, and lack of choice overall.

Creating an outside-the-box housing project, such as where you might have greater density or smaller plot sizes, wanting to develop on rural land, wanting to create affordability, can lead to substantial more hurdles for housing community creators (including non-speculative housing developers and groups) because the Council, neighbors, financial institutions, and legal requir [...]​

A Region of Regenerative Place-Making

The highlight of my week was participating in the Global Ecovillage Network Oceania and Australisia (GENOA) Network. It is a monthly gathering of community builders and social change champions from every country in the region who care about and are doing regenerative  place-making [...]​

What I really love about collective housing is that, by its nature, it develops community in a social sense while developing community in the physical realm. We have a chance to practice, while in the creation process, the values, principles and ways of being together that ultimately result in a great connected community that then reflects those values in form and function.

What I love about my work at Common Ground is connecting with inspiring people like you who tell me about their amazing housing & community project ideas, guided by values of connection, sustainability, justice and affordability. Across the country, I hear of people coming together to explore possibilities of how to create meaningful places to live.

How would our housing and neighbourhoods look if they were in service to life?  In service to human lives--the social and cultural needs of people, in service to nature and the other life forms on the planet, in service to the livelihood and resilience of the community.

It might seem obvious that housing should be for life but if one looks at [...]​

Are you interested in exploring how your community (at any stage from idea to long-established) could be more resilient, low-impact, peaceful, inclusive, equitable, and collaborative?

As a GEN Ambassador, I am assisting community leaders, groups of people who want to create a community, or anyone wishing to incorporate regenerative principles and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the design of where they are living[...]

Māori speak of the wairua (spirit) of the land and home is expressed through connection to mountain, river, and hapu (extended family, community).  We find in many traditional cultures, such as the Zulu culture where I lived in South Africa, land is considered a part of the community.  Land is not privatised but rather is a community resource, where someone can be given permission to occupy, build, and steward a section of land for the greater good of the community. [...]

When it comes to housing, it’s just as important to pay attention to the spaces between as it is the housing itself and to plan, design, and value these in-between spaces. In permaculture, we speak about the importance of the relationships between things—how one thing relates to another and the reciprocal value that comes from that relationship. The permaculture principle integrate rather than segregate also speaks to this.

The value of these “between” spaces is both physical and invisible and [...]