At a property in Canberra’s inner suburbs, there is a barbecue, a snooker table, a workshop and a garden.<\/p>\n
In that respect it’s like many other Australian homes.<\/p>\n
But what makes this place \u2013 dubbed Stellulata \u2013 unique is that it is a purpose-built co-housing development, recently completed on a residential block to be home to six Canberrans.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got three couples living on a block that previously had one house on it, so it’s very efficient use of the land,” co-owner Trish Macdonald said.<\/p>\n
The property is now home to six Canberrans and a newly planted garden. (ABC News: Luke Stephenson)<\/p>\n
In addition to the other amenities, there is also a large communal kitchen which has already hosted a 50th birthday.<\/p>\n
And there is a shared spare room where they plan to host their first overnight visitors soon.<\/p>\n
“We’ve managed to transform an area where there was minimal activity \u2026 and now we’ve got this hubbub, an internal hubbub,” co-owner James Godfrey said.<\/p>\n
“But there’s an ongoing connection with the community going past and there’s a lot of vibrancy within here, but still relatively quiet.”<\/p>\n
Private space combines with communal living<\/p>\n
The concept sounds deceptively simple and normal: each couple has their own 100-square-metre private unit with shared common facilities all built on an 1,100 square-metre suburban block.<\/p>\n
“We have our own private space,” Ian Ross, another of the project’s co-owners, said.<\/p>\n
“But unlike a block of flats, where you’ve just got the lifts and foyer, we are sharing a lot more resources.”<\/p>\n
The residents say the property requires everyone to agree and to work together with shared principles. (ABC News: Luke Stephenson)<\/p>\n
The journey has been anything but simple.<\/p>\n
What began as conversations between long-term friends Ian Ross, Joss Haiblen and Trish Macdonald seven years ago evolved into an odyssey that required changing the ACT’s Territory Plan \u2014 a process that needed a Legislative Assembly vote \u2014 all disrupted by Covid, fires, rain and common garden construction delays.<\/p>\n
It’s built as a demonstration housing project to test whether the co-housing model will be suitable more generally in the Canberra community.<\/p>\n
“The ACT government was looking for people who couldn’t do what they wanted to do due to the planning rules, and while they didn’t give us any financial support, they were willing to guide us through the planning system to get things changed,” Mr Ross said.<\/p>\n
“Four years was taken up getting approvals.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The concrete slab newly laid for Stellulata on a residential block that previously contained one home. (Supplied: Stellulata\u00a0)<\/p>\n
The other challenge was finding a block of land in the area.<\/p>\n
“This block had virtually no trees. A big empty quarter acre block from 1949 with a small house on it,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Ross is up-front about saying it wouldn’t be considered affordable housing \u2014 it’s architecturally designed on an inner-city suburban block with fit-outs bespoke to each unit.<\/p>\n
“We have been able to build something for a cost we wouldn’t have been able to do individually,” he said.Shared space<\/p>\n
For co-owners Trish Macdonald, Joss Haiblen, and Ian Ross, the goal was to downsize while keeping a strong connection with their community, doing the things they love in the area they enjoyed and being able to age in place.<\/p>\n
For Mr Ross, the idea formed after his wife died.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Stellulata was designed and built over about seven years. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
“I was single, living in a a very big house and I was looking at at downsizing, so I was certainly tempted by the situation of moving into a smaller place but still having community around me in the area that I wanted to live.” he said.<\/p>\n
For Jillian Reid and James Godfrey, it was the opposite.<\/p>\n
“This is upsizing for us. There’s no way we could have been living in this space in Ainslie by ourselves,” Ms Reid said.<\/p>\n
“For us to be able to share the land costs and the fixed cost to be able to do a build like this, it’s meant that we’ve been able to achieve the sustainability objectives that we wanted and having more garden space which we just couldn’t have afforded on our own.<\/p>\n
“The aging in place piece is really important, which we’re still happy about as well.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One of the kitchens in a unit at Stellulata, which was completed earlier this year.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Shared values<\/p>\n
Each resident’s private space is smaller than a traditional house, but access to extensive common areas means the total available space remains similar \u2014 with shared costs.<\/p>\n
They found that forming a company was the most suitable structure in the ACT for designing, building, managing and ultimately sharing their new home.<\/p>\n
“Shared” is a word that comes up regularly: shared resources and shared values, but also shared labour.<\/p>\n
Unlike traditional strata arrangements where this is outsourced, everyone in Stellulata contributes to take responsibility for different areas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sustainability and solar passive design informed the project. (Supplied: Stellulata\u00a0)<\/p>\n
Some manage utilities, others handle the garden, and all major decisions involve all six residents.<\/p>\n
“We all have our different ways of operating and that’s really great,” Mr Godfrey said.<\/p>\n
“Some people have more time, less time, and some people go away for longer periods, so we can look after each other’s places while people are away.”<\/p>\n
Choosing a co-housing community<\/p>\n
Ms Reid and Mr Godfrey discovered the project online while looking to upsize outside of the intensity and unaffordability of Sydney.<\/p>\n
Ms Reid said she recalls Googling “co-housing Canberra”, and when the Stellulata website popped up the couple went from there.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The property includes a row of three units in an inner suburb of Canberra. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Over weeks there was an extensive interview stage.<\/p>\n
“It was quite an interesting process because some might think it as an interview, that they were checking us \u2026 but simultaneously we were interviewing them,” Mr Godfrey said.<\/p>\n
“We needed to work out what were the threshold issues that either we would or we couldn’t live with each other.<\/p>\n
“We talked about issues of sustainability or environmental awareness, what sort of things interested us \u2026 whereas otherwise you buy into a strata place and you may or may not meet your neighbours before you buy or rent into a place.”<\/p>\n
Ms Macdonald says having a younger couple in the group gives diversity to their day and opens up their social circles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We’re not in an aged care place. We’re a normal part of the community,” she said.<\/p>\n
Could it be replicated?<\/p>\n
Cities and towns across Australia are continuing to grapple with the problem of housing affordability.<\/a><\/p>\n It is possible co-housing could offer a potential solution to the “missing middle” \u2014 housing options that are neither apartments nor suburban houses.<\/p>\n The project included the installation of solar batteries and panels. (Supplied)<\/p>\n The group agree the result is worth the effort, but Mr Ross candidly admitted it wasn’t easy.<\/p>\n “It’s fantastic but we were all pretty traumatised by the time we got to at the end of \u2026 seven years,” he said.<\/p>\n “So it took us a little bit of time to settle in, but we are all feeling very relaxed in our units now.”<\/p>\n He said that it could be replicated but in a different way.<\/p>\n “You probably wouldn’t do it quite like this.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n