Innovation Studio visit to Springhill Cohousing Community
16th July 2013
In March 2013 students taking the Landscape Innovation Studio module visited Springhill Cohousing Community in Stroud. Springhill was the first cohousing community in the UK, begun approx 2002 and completed by Spring 2005. It is an incredibly innovative system of both development of land and living, with residents paying upfront for the land purchase and landscape / architectural design and having a strong say in the layout and design of their neighbourhood. More details are available on this PDF by Max Comfort (Springhill, December 12th 2008) – springhillcasestudy_12.12.08
Some of the key landscape architecture principles followed are:
- a central pedestrian street linking most of the houses – safe and communal,
- a fantastic Sustainable Urban Drainage System throughout the development,
- high levels of sustainability in materials and construction,
- a shared community building where meals and activities can be shared,
- limited parking kept to the edge of the site to provide safe outdoor spaces for everyone.
