Our Urban Village Cohousing
Cohousing lite: An innovative project with Tomo Spaces offers a promising solution to Vancouver’s housing and social isolation crises.
Our Urban Village offers a sustainable, social model for adding gentle density to single-family neighbourhoods. (Madeleine Hebert / Happy Cities)
The happier missing middle
Can we design multi-unit housing to nurture strong, supportive social relationships? Hundreds of hours of research led us to believe the answer is yes. Our Urban Village (formerly called Tomo House) brings this idea to life.
Happy Cities collaborated with local developer Tomo Spaces, a creative design team (Lanefab and MA+HG Architects), and Our Urban Village to pilot a new form of socially connected, missing middle housing called “cohousing lite.” Our work included:
Design principles for wellbeing to guide the development of the project, building on Happy Cities research on wellbeing in multi-unit housing
A post-occupancy study comparing residents’ wellbeing before and after move in, to identify how living in community-oriented housing can nurture health, belonging, social connection, and more
About Our Urban Village
Our Urban Village is a three-storey, 12-unit cohousing project in Vancouver. It combines a small cluster of private homes with shared indoor and outdoor social spaces, including a common house, courtyard, shared laundry, and parking.
Cohousing groups face many barriers to development, including long project timelines, expensive land, complex municipal policy, and significant time commitments. Many groups that form are unable to overcome these challenges and complete their project. Our Urban Village piloted an innovative “cohousing lite” model, collaborating with a local developer to reduce many of these financial and time barriers. The project prioritizes resident wellbeing and social connection, and offers an innovative model for developing low-rise, “missing middle” housing in a largely single-family residential neighbourhood.
Our research outlines key learnings from this cohousing lite community to explore how cities can add gentle density and grow in a sustainable and social way.
Our Urban Village, view from Main Street.
Project architects, Marianne Amodio and Harley Grusko, on the building’s wide outdoor walkways.
What we learned
Happy Cities designed a research methodology to measure how residents’ wellbeing changed before and after moving into Our Urban Village. Our results find that—as research and the residents themselves predicted—interactions with neighbours, social support, and trust in neighbours have significantly increased since moving in. The results highlight impactful actions that can be implemented in future, community-oriented, missing middle developments to boost sense of community, wellbeing, and belonging.
Explore a snapshot of our results below, or download the report to learn more.
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Small-scale cohousing embeds social connection into daily living, through building design, shared activities, and intentional community.
As of six months after move in, residents reported:
An increase in both the number and frequency of social interactions they have, with all residents reporting that they have weekly or daily conversations with neighbours, compared to just 50% before
An increase in the number of neighbours they consider as friends, with all but one respondent having at least two or more neighbours they consider as a friend
An increase in the number of people they have to confide in, with all but one having four or more people
A decrease in loneliness, with all but one reporting that they feel lonely rarely or never
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Living in an intentional community builds a stronger sense of belonging and trust among neighbours, which can grow mutual support over time.
As of six months after moving into Our Urban Village, residents reported:
A significant increase in sense of belonging, with all respondents agreeing that they feel they have something important to offer to their building or neighbourhood
An increase in their sense of trust in neighbours, with all residents reporting that they have four or more neighbours they would feel comfortable asking for favours from
An increase in the sharing of household items and responsibilities, including tools, appliances, vehicles, and even childcare
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Comfortable, well-designed private spaces nurture community by allowing people to control their social exposure and build positive relationships with neighbours.
As of six months after moving in, residents reported:
No significant change in satisfaction with private living spaces, with all respondents but one agreeing or strongly agreeing that they are satisfied with private living spaces
Overall satisfaction with comfort of their new unit, including aspects such as noise, natural light, and temperature control
Overall satisfaction with privacy, with all respondents but one reporting that they feel they have enough privacy in their unit
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Walkways, stairs, and elevators with social design features can increase opportunities for positive and spontaneous social interactions, fostering a sense of community.
Circulation spaces are not typically considered to be social spaces. Our Urban Village intentionally designed wide, outdoor walkways, stairs, and an elevator with social nooks to support interaction among neighbours. These design decisions have paid off, as residents report that the wide outdoor walkways are the most social spaces in the building. As of six months after move in, the majority of residents report interacting with neighbours daily in circulation spaces, showing the social potential of shared spaces that are built into people’s daily routines and along the pathways to and from their unit.
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Common amenities that are functional, diverse, and easily accessible—designed as extensions of smaller individual homes—create a strong community heart.
Beyond the courtyard and common house, Our Urban Village considered the social potential of all shared spaces in the building—including walkways, stairs, laundry, parking, and storage. As of six months after move in:
Many common spaces facilitate weekly social encounters among residents, particularly through the communal meals and meetings
Satisfaction with shared indoor and outdoor spaces increased post occupancy, with all residents expressing satisfaction with indoor shared spaces
There are no feelings of overcrowding in any of the common spaces at the building
All respondents with kids reported they feel comfortable letting their kids play unsupervised in the building’s courtyard or outdoor spaces at Our Urban Village, compared to just one household before
All respondents are satisfied with the amount of natural light in common spaces in the building
Our Urban Village includes wide outdoor walkways and a shared courtyard. (Matheson Photography)
Learn more about community housing models:
Read about local, inspiring community housing models—like cohousing and co-operative housing—and learn about how to apply design principles to transform any multi-unit building into a place where people know and support their neighbours.
More stories about Tomo Spaces and Our Urban Village
Developer Mark Shieh sees shared living spaces as a way to bring fractured communities together. The Globe and Mail
What’s behind the Tomo name of a new cohousing project? Georgia Straight
Making connections. The Globe and Mail
Cohousing project in Vancouver. Daily Hive
Cohousing Lite enters the Vancouver housing lexicon. The Courier
Funding acknowledgment
This research received funding from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) through the National Housing Strategy Demonstrations Initiative. The views expressed are the personal views of the author and CMHC accept no responsibility for them.
Cohousing communities reveal the benefits of supportive, multigenerational neighbours—showing that apartment living doesn’t have to be lonely or isolating.