Cohousing for Ageing Well

Published on 10 June 2021

cohousing lady in garden nearby home

The Cohousing project is a collaboration between like-mind councils - the Cities of Unley, Prospect, Burnside and Town of Walkerville, who worked in partnership with Dr Damian Madigan from UniSA's Architecture faculty, Planning SA, SA Health's Office for Ageing Well and Creative and Match Studio. Residents provided their input and experience to inform new designs that enable older properties to be altered to allow higher density living on the plot, but without subdivision.

The project team generated a design report providing four different design templates for properties on different block sizes, outlining the types of scenarios where amendments would best fit people’s life circumstances - whether that was older couples wishing to cohouse with adult children, or a group of senior peers wishing to 'age in place' together.

The capacity of the project to create more flexible and affordable housing options for people at every stage of life was recently recognised by being awarded the Local Government Excellence in Leadership Award for Community Partnership and Collaboration. This not only acknowledged the project team but reinforces the importance of giving older community members a voice in projects that can create a positive impact in their lives. 

The team are also pleased to share that the project is now progressing to Stage 2, working alongside Planning SA to author new definitions and policies that can sit within the state's new Planning and Design Code, enabling innovative cohousing to be permitted, approved and built here in South Australia in the near future.

Watch the short video to learn more.