In late 2013 a small group of Dunedin residents formed a company called Urban Cohousing Otepoti Ltd. They wanted to create a more sociable type of neighbourhood. A neighbourhood that broke away from the typical “section with a house in the middle” type of development which is almost ubiquitous in New Zealand.

They imagined homes built around central green space where children could play. They imagined the economies of scale which could be achieved by building 20 – 25 homes together and sharing walls. They imagined shared facilities that they would not have been able to build individually, or which they would have had to build and maintain themselves, like guest rooms, a large multi- function room, workshop, greenhouse, vegetable garden, playground, etc.