The Village Beyond the City: Community living in Rural New Zealand

This research sets out to develop a model of community housing that reduces residential land use in rural New Zealand. The aim is to address the issue of sprawl within lifestyle properties and explore the cultural resistance towards increasing density and alternative housing models within rural New Zealand. To achieve this, a co-housing model of rural residential housing will be explored and developed, exploring increased density as a tool for more sustainable rural housing and connecting occupants to rural production. For the exercise of this thesis, sustainability will be defined as designing and living with respect to our finite resources and the wider natural environment, particularly the flora and fauna that occupy local space. An iterative design-led research methodology will support a qualitative approach. Each iteration aims to shape the outcome and improve the quality of the proposed design.