Happy neighbours
Design and programming strategies to boost wellbeing, belonging, and connection in multi-unit housing.
Overview
As cities densify, residents are living closer and closer together. While dense urban communities, made up of mid- and high-rise developments, have the potential to support cohesive social networks, many residents still feel lonely. Happy Neighbours identifies promising actions required to build strong social connections through the design and programming of multi-unit housing.
Vancouver-based developers Tomo Spaces and Concert Properties have implemented social design and programming actions to promote social connectedness in dense residential spaces. Happy Cities conducted a multi-year study to evaluate the impacts of these actions on residents’ sociability, sense of belonging, trust, health, and overall wellbeing. Through this research and engagement with residents, we produced two practice guides to enable more socially connected, community-oriented multi-unit housing. Scroll down to learn more!
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Share evidence, best practices and innovative ideas that promote social wellbeing in multi-unit housing with industry partners.
Share each the research process and findings with the wider community.
Create easy-to-use practice guides that identify programming and design actions to boost social wellbeing in multi-housing.
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Multi-unit housing designers and developers who want to design for wellbeing
Property managers and operators who aim to increase resident wellbeing
Housing planners who hope to maximize wellbeing-oriented design and programming opportunities
Policy makers who want to ensure municipal and provincial bylaws and regulations support wellbeing in multi-unit housing
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We would like to acknowledge Tomo Spaces and Concert Properties’ consistent commitment to this project and to implementing design and programming actions that promote social wellbeing. Special thanks to residents of Tomo House and Collingwood Village. Without their participation this study would not be possible. And a final thank you to the Hey Neighbour Collective, for its support of the Together Apart toolkit, and for sharing learnings about social connectedness.
This project received funding from the National Housing Strategy under the Demonstrations Initiative. The views expressed are the personal views of the author and CMHC accept no responsibility for them.
Design initiative
Our Urban Village (formerly called Tomo House) is an innovative, 12-unit “cohousing lite” project located on Vancouver’s Main Street. From the start, the project was designed to foster social interaction through the intentional design of shared spaces.
Happy Cities conducted a post-occupancy study to assess how multi-unit housing design can contribute to stronger wellbeing, connections, and belonging among residents. We compared residents’ wellbeing before move in with data collected three and six months after to identify the key design features and spaces that facilitate social wellbeing and connectedness. Through this research, we identified impactful actions that can be implemented in future, community-oriented, missing middle developments to boost sense of community, wellbeing, and belonging.
This innovative model comes at an important time. As housing prices continue to rise faster than incomes, neither the high-rise tower nor the single family home serves families’ needs. Cohousing lite offers a promising and replicable missing middle solution for Vancouver’s many single-family neighbourhoods.
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In collaboration with future residents from Our Urban Village Cohousing, the design team led by MA+HG Architects also includes Happy Cities, Lanefab Design/Build, and Prospect & Refuge.
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Our Urban Village is a group of families who wanted the benefits of cohousing without the crippling financial and time burdens that often come with traditional cohousing approaches. They invented a phrase, “cohousing lite,” to describe their dream.
Cohousing is a collaborative form of living where people with similar values choose to make a home together. Residents own their own units, but the larger building hosts shared spaces beyond traditional amenities. In the cohousing lite model, the developer owns the land until the project is built. The developer also leads design and building, but engages residents throughout the process.
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Stay tuned as we publish the final learnings and practice guide in April 2024.
Learning from community housing article series
Programming initiative
Resident-led social activities can play a key role in promoting social connection and wellbeing in multi-unit housing. This research examines Concert Properties’ Community Connectors program, an innovative initiative in which Concert staff supported resident volunteers to organize social activities that facilitate connections with neighbours. The program set out to foster social capital, with the recognition that this can be nurtured and grown over time with the right opportunities for positive social interactions.
Happy Cities measured how social programming (events, gatherings, casual encounters, passive encounters and even digital activities) impacted wellbeing and sociability among residents.
This research demonstrates that social connectedness benefits both landlords and tenants alike, and shows how housing providers can play a key role in encouraging residents to organize and participate in social activities that connect neighbours.
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Just as we were gearing up to study the impact of in-person social activities, COVID-19 hit. So we developed a brief guidebook with engagement ideas that can help people stay connected and feel supported during physical distancing. We are grateful for the support from the Hey Neighbour Collective members and the community of practice in putting this guidebook together.
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To synthesize all of our learnings throughout the course of this project, we created a Practice Guide for implementing resident-led social programming in multi-unit rental housing, titled, Learning from the Community Connectors. We created this report collaboratively with our partners at Hey Neighbour Collective, to synthesize our research findings from separate wellbeing-focused assessments of Concert’s Community Connectors program.
This final report shares the key learnings from the Community Connectors program, starting a conversation on how—and why—rental housing providers can implement similar social programming initiatives.
Happy neighbours videos
About Here’s Uytae Lee breaks down the opportunities and challenges to design more socially connected housing:
Cohousing communities reveal the benefits of supportive, multigenerational neighbours—showing that apartment living doesn’t have to be lonely or isolating.