6th July 2025.
Better urbanism through cohousing: TOWN in the Urban Design Journal.
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In the latest issue of the Urban Design Group Journal, TOWN Director Neil Murphy reflects on a decade of learning from working with cohousing communities – and how that experience is shaping better places.
In his article, Better Urbanism Through Cohousing, Neil draws on TOWN projects including Marmalade Lane in Cambridge, Still Green in Milton Keynes and Angel Yard in Norwich to explore how cohousing supports more sustainable, inclusive and sociable places. He sets out eight key contributions – from car-free streets and typological diversity to civic presence and measurable social value.
A central theme is engagement with purpose. In cohousing, Neil writes, “the interests of an enabling developer and would-be future residents are aligned from the start”. This results in a more reciprocal and efficient design process – and ultimately, better places. “Cohousers usually know how they want to live and will tell you, and we have clear ideas on good and bad design practice.”
This early, active involvement of residents leads to outcomes that are both more responsive and more distinctive. At Marmalade Lane, for example, the car-free street at the heart of the neighbourhood emerged not from policy requirement but from a desire to offer something back to the wider community. “It stemmed from a wish to make the community visually and physically permeable to the surrounding neighbourhood and offer a ‘public’ contribution.”
Neil also challenges the idea that community-led housing is inherently inward-looking or low-density. “Cohousing is often amenable to the kind of high density, low-rise approach to urban and architectural design sometimes referred to as the ‘missing middle’.” Projects like Still Green and Angel Yard achieve densities of over 100 dwellings per hectare with three to four storeys, making efficient use of land while creating shared outdoor space and neighbourly forms of living.
One of the most striking impacts, though, is social. A post-occupancy study of Marmalade Lane carried out by TOWN and Greengage in 2023 found that the scheme had generated over £1 million in social value, largely due to wellbeing benefits from neighbourliness and mutual trust. “The coincidence between the kind of places that cohousing produces, the lives it sustains, and what urbanists think of as good cities and towns is greater than many imagine,” Neil concludes.
Neil will be speaking about these ideas and more at the Urban Design Group’s event on Community-Led Urbanism on 14th July 2025. You can book tickets here.
Share
In the latest issue of the Urban Design Group Journal, TOWN Director Neil Murphy reflects on a decade of learning from working with cohousing communities – and how that experience is shaping better places.
In his article, Better Urbanism Through Cohousing, Neil draws on TOWN projects including Marmalade Lane in Cambridge, Still Green in Milton Keynes and Angel Yard in Norwich to explore how cohousing supports more sustainable, inclusive and sociable places. He sets out eight key contributions – from car-free streets and typological diversity to civic presence and measurable social value.
A central theme is engagement with purpose. In cohousing, Neil writes, “the interests of an enabling developer and would-be future residents are aligned from the start”. This results in a more reciprocal and efficient design process – and ultimately, better places. “Cohousers usually know how they want to live and will tell you, and we have clear ideas on good and bad design practice.”
This early, active involvement of residents leads to outcomes that are both more responsive and more distinctive. At Marmalade Lane, for example, the car-free street at the heart of the neighbourhood emerged not from policy requirement but from a desire to offer something back to the wider community. “It stemmed from a wish to make the community visually and physically permeable to the surrounding neighbourhood and offer a ‘public’ contribution.”
Neil also challenges the idea that community-led housing is inherently inward-looking or low-density. “Cohousing is often amenable to the kind of high density, low-rise approach to urban and architectural design sometimes referred to as the ‘missing middle’.” Projects like Still Green and Angel Yard achieve densities of over 100 dwellings per hectare with three to four storeys, making efficient use of land while creating shared outdoor space and neighbourly forms of living.
One of the most striking impacts, though, is social. A post-occupancy study of Marmalade Lane carried out by TOWN and Greengage in 2023 found that the scheme had generated over £1 million in social value, largely due to wellbeing benefits from neighbourliness and mutual trust. “The coincidence between the kind of places that cohousing produces, the lives it sustains, and what urbanists think of as good cities and towns is greater than many imagine,” Neil concludes.
Neil will be speaking about these ideas and more at the Urban Design Group’s event on Community-Led Urbanism on 14th July 2025. You can book tickets here.
