Sarah Arthurs (Canadian Development Models – Day 2)

Sarah Arthurs with Cohousing Connections is a graduate of the 500 Communities Program and an affiliate of CoHousing Solutions. She is currently working on cohousing projects with Katie McCamant and is excited to continue that collaborative relationship to further cohousing opportunities in North America.

Her emerging work with cohousing groups is called Stone Soup Services – in which she supports forming and existing cohousing groups to cocreate and refresh their experience of intentional community.

An outside champion can enable cohousing communities to rediscover their playfulness, companionship and joy in life together. Sarah has lived in cohousing for over a decade and is motivated by the richness of that experience to support others in their cohousing story. Her background as a psychologist and community developer supports this work.

Joren Bass  (US Development Models – Day 1)

UD+P
https://udplp.com/

A “boots on the ground architect,” Joren is every bit as comfortable and capable with a pencil or computer as with a framing hammer in hand. Adept at managing every phase of the building process, Joren collaborates with Avi Ben-Zaken and Leslie Louis to manage UD+P projects from early conception and design through construction and completion.

Bringing more than 20 years of diverse design and construction experience with projects in the Portland area, as well as nationally and internationally, Joren holds a BFA in Industrial Design from the University of Kansas, a Master of Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis and is a licensed architect. His broad experience, creativity and passion for the built environment allow him to help UD+P shape Portland’s innovative, sustainable and growing community.

Federico Bisschop (tours of Botanico Day 1 and Indruk Day 2)

Founder Cohousing Projects

Belgium

Federico has a business background with a Masters in Business Administration.  He became passionate about cohousing and decided to start a group, which resulted in the first newly built cohousing in Belgium in 2010.  This experience marked the beginning of a career switch and after an international career in supply chain and IT-companies, he founded Cohousing Projects.  This well established name in Belgium supports groups, developers and investors.  They initiated about 25 different projects in the Flemish part of Belgium, some of them award-winning but all very sustainable future-proof neighborhoods with 6 to 36 households.  Recently Cohousing Projects also embarked as a developer of cohousing projects to better serve the needs of a demanding audience.

Bryan Bowen (tour of Memel Cohousing – Day 3)

Caddis Collaborative

Bryan Bowen founded Caddis Collaborative in 2002 (originally bba). Caddis is a multidisciplinary design collaborative that explores ways of living more lightly upon our earth in beautiful, healthy environments. A leader in sustainable design, net-zero homes, urban infill, and livable communities, Caddis applies sophisticated design and creative solutions to every project. In addition to our skills in architecture and entitlement, our expertise in grassroots community engagement is essential for large-scale projects, specifically that of multifamily housing, new-urbanist neighborhoods, resort development, and institutional projects.  Our work is creative, diverse, and eclectic, since we are responding to each opportunity with open eyes and no stylistic agenda. 

Bryan has been a practicing architect since 1995 and is dedicated to the design of sustainable neighborhoods and eco-buildings, all with the vision of creating great places for people. Bryan’s work includes cohousing, single-family homes, deep energy-retrofits, affordable and multifamily housing, mixed-use projects, community planning, and commercial new-build design. Bryan served two terms as a member of the City of Boulder Planning Board, sat on the Design Advisory Board, Landmarks Board, and Housing Advisory Board as well as participating in several major initiatives like the Missing Middle, Form Based Code, and Downtown Design Guidelines, the Co-op Ordinance, and advocated for increases in inclusionary housing. 

Bryan walks the talk – his family lived in Wild Sage Cohousing for 17 years and Caddis offices in Studio Mews, both in the heart of Holiday Neighborhood in north Boulder. His home at Wild Sage and their EV’s electricity are provided 100% by the sun, and his family tries hard to keep a light footprint. Bryan loved his life in cohousing and revels in the simple benefits of community – friends right outside the front door, casual interactions, great food, a rich life for his kiddos, but mostly happy hours and time in the wood shop. 

Sam Brown (Alternative Development Models – Day 3)

Architect in the Sheffield School of Architecture

www.liveprojects.org

Sam Brown is a UK-based Architect and Educator with a wide range of practice experience in the UK and further afield. Currently in post at the University of Sheffield School of Architecture (SSoA), Sam has also held Senior Architect and Associate positions at a number of architectural practices and worked in multi-disciplinary teams on larger projects. Sam has also taught Architecture at various levels in a number of Schools of Architecture in the UK and internationally – and carried out industry-based research projects for national bodies in his specialist field of community-led housing and self-build projects. At the SSoA, Sam leads the Live Projects Programme, which sees groups of masters-level students from different cohorts work together in teams on real projects for real clients selected for their non-profit, social or environmental ethos. The Programme is now in its 22nd year – and has developed a number of projects for cohousing groups and other forms of community-led housing in that time, as well as engaged, strategic work for local authorities, charities and grass-roots community groups of all kinds. Sam is also an accredited Community Led Housing Adviser working with enabling hubs in London and the West Midlands.

Chiara Casotti (Community Led Cohousing – Day 3)

Montesole Cohousing in Montaldo Torinese, Italy  

Chiara is  an Italian Social Planner, Co-Founder of Casematte Non Profit Organization  based in Turin, Italy. She taught Art History and worked as an Architect for fifteen years, then worked mainly in the field of local and community development since 2005, promoting processes of participation and sharing within the Casematte and CoAbitare Non Profit Organizations and the Italian Cohousing and Collaborative living network. Her recent TEDx Talk focuses on why it is better to live together in a cohousing.

Since 2020 Chiara lives in a cohousing near Turin. She also deals with collective vegetable gardens and Horticultural Therapy.

@ chiaracasotti@casematte.it

Yunhwa Chung (Cohousing-friendly Policies – Day 1)

Community Housing Coordinator

Combining studies of political science and interior architecture, Yunhwa acts as a community housing coordinator to support groups with information on building community housing units in Seoul. She has been working with Nanju since 2020, promoting Seoul Metropolitan Government’s community housing friendly policies. She is actively visiting public and privately owned community housing units in Seoul, listening to the architects, residents, and public officials related. By the support of Nanju, she also invited Grace Kim, Jan Gehl, and Simon Caspersen from Space10 on the 2020 Seoul Cohousing Symposium.

Alicia DeLashmutt (Cohousing for All – Day 3)

https://www.ourhomecathedralpark.com https://www.ourhomecathedralpark.com

Alicia DeLashmutt is the Founder and President of Our Home, Inclusive Community Collaborative, a non-profit whose mission is to promote, support and develop inclusive, diverse communities. She also is the Founding Neighbor of Our Home – Cathedral Park, an inclusive and diverse cohousing community forming in Portland, Oregon whose members have a range of age, income, and ability. She is the proud mother of an awesome young adult daughter whose interests include baseball, Fritos and opera. Her daughter experiences Mowat-Wilson Syndrome, a rare genetic syndrome whose effects are widespread and significant. Alicia is an active advocate and parent mentor who believes that the inclusion of ALL, regardless of race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, or gender identity is necessary for a vibrant and healthy community. 

Nanju Do (Cohousing-friendly Policies – Day 1) (Community Led Cohousing – Day 3)

Seoul Metropolitan Government Public Official

https://soco.seoul.go.kr/coHouse/index.do

Nanju is a community housing specialist working at the Seoul Metropolitan Government Housing Supply Division since 2014. Majored urban design and urban planning, she has developed urban community housing models, designed Community Housing Certification System, manages finance and building permission issues specially for community housing. She believes her role is to spread the community housing model to improve urban dwellers’ life, having strong local roots.

She is also a developer of her own community housing unit which embraces five families in the outskirts of Seoul. By actually living in a model she is willing to spread, she is grateful for having the chance to recognize the weak points and find practical solutions to develop the model itself every day.

Karen Gimnig (Facilitation in Development – Day 3)
CohoUS Interim Executive Director, Summit Host

Karen is a relationship and process consultant for communities, organizations and teams and co-author of The Cooperative Culture Handbook. She lives in Anacortes WA and connects with clients on Zoom and, when conditions allow, by traveling to clients. Her focus is on relationships and the skills needed to build strong connections.

Helen Jarvis (Community Led Cohousing – Day 3)

Helen Jarvis is Professor of Social Geography Engagement at Newcastle University: she gained her PhD from the London School of Economics in 1997.  Her current research considers intentional communities of collaborative housing, civic engagement, geographies of inequality from a household perspective and work-life reconciliation.  She is internationally regarded for advancing new paradigms of sustainable de-growth and social architectures that support a green sharing economy.  Visiting fellowships include a period as ‘researcher in residence’ in the ‘Freetown’ of Christiania, Copenhagen, in 2010.  She sat on the board of directors of the UK Cohousing Network 2014-2018 and is a founding member of Cohousing upon Tyne (CoHUT) with conditional planning approval (December 2021) for 25 unit Passivhuis brownfield site development.

Owen Jarvis (Association Updates – Day 1 and Starter Kits for Forming Groups – Day 2) 

CEO of UK Cohousing Network

https://www.cohousing.org.uk/ 

Owen Jarvis has over 20 years-experience of leading community and social enterprises mostly tackling housing issues. He is a Clore Social Leadership Fellow and alumni of the Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship. He is an advocate of using design thinking for social change and has also published on how third sector organisations can scale their impact through collaborations. Owen is delighted to be working for UKCN, having spent many happy years of his life living in community-led housing and ecovillages.

Grace Kim

Summit Chair and Host
schemataworkshop.com

Grace H. Kim is an architect and co-founding principal of Schemata Workshop, an award-winning architectural practice with a keen focus on building community and social equity. She brings innovative ideas to her projects that merge client goals and sustainability measures – such as urban agriculture, modular construction, and a focus on building community.

Grace is also the cofounder of Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing, a collaborative residential community which includes her street level office and a rooftop urban farm. She walks the talk of sustainability – leaving a small ecological footprint while incorporating holistic ideals of social and economic resilience into her daily life.

Her TED Talk on cohousing as an antidote for loneliness has been received more than 2 million views. Grace is an internationally recognized expert in cohousing, particularly for her expertise in designing the Common House. Grace and her firm Schemata Workshop has provided architectural services to Daybreak Cohousing, Siskyou Cohousing, Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing, Dragonfly Cohousing, Upper Langley Cohousing, Mary’s River Cohousing, Skagit Commons, Adams Creek Cohousing, and Sunnyside Village.

Grace has visited more than 90 cohousing communities in North America, Denmark and South Korea. For four years Grace served on the national board for the Cohousing Association of the US and she currently serves on the Professional Advisory Council. She was the Chair of the 2009 National Cohousing Conference and International Cohousing Summit in Seattle, and the Co-Chair of the 2019 National Cohousing Conference in Portland.

Mike Mariano, AIA (Capital Hill Urban Cohousing Virtual Tour – Day 3)

Mike is an architect and co-founding partner of Schemata Workshop, a Seattle-based architectural practice. His personal and professional focus is on elevating the experience of living in and moving through the urban environment. Civic and personal well-being are intertwined, with thoughtful design helping to build social cohesion and community resilience. Mike is a past co-chair of the Capitol Hill Eco-District Steering Committee, one of the first in the nation to be certified under the comprehensive EcoDistrict program to address the imperatives of Equity, Resilience, and Climate Protection. He also co-chairs the American Institute of Architects (Seattle) Committee on Adaptation & Resilience, whose mission trains local architects and engineers in post-disaster response, with an emphasis on preparedness and establishing resilience in our communities. Mike is also a co-founder of Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing, where he lives with his family in a transit-oriented neighborhood.

(Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing Virtual Tour)

Katie McCamant (US Development Models – Day 1)

CoHousing Solutions, President

www.cohousing-solutions.com

Katie brings the depth and diversity of her 35 years of experience as a developer, architect, and cohousing resident to benefit her clients. Coauthor of Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, the book that introduced cohousing to North America, and more recently, Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities, Katie co-founded McCamant & Durrett Architects/The CoHousing Company with Charles Durrett. More recently, she started CoHousing Solutions as a development consulting firm to share best practices and systems for successful collaborative development. She works with urban, suburban and rural communities all across North America, helping them define and implement their development strategy and build the professional team they need. She also founded the 500 Communities Program to train other professionals to work in this realm. She lived for 12 years at Doyle Street Cohousing in the San Francisco Bay Area, and now lives at Nevada City Cohousing in the Sierra Foothills.

Kathy McGrenera

Kathy was a forming member and has lived at Quayside Village Cohousing in North Vancouver Canada for 23 years. Kathy worked as a consultant with Cohousing Development Consulting from 2015-2021 on Driftwood Village and Little Mountain Cohousing projects. Kathy has attended Facilitation Training programs with Tree Bressen and Laird Schaub and has worked as a facilitator with many cohousing communities. She is a board member of the Canadian Cohousing Network.

Shelly Parks (Support for Forming Groups/ Marketing – Day 2)

CoVision Consulting

Shelly offers her extensive experience in Sales/Marketing to forming and developing cohousing groups. Her focus is on a project’s success through member recruitment and her services include review and analysis of marketing efforts, coaching calls, creating marketing plans, CRM development, and more. Shelly is a 500 Communities graduate and Cohousing Solutions Affiliate. She offers a one hour free consultation.

Elena Pereyra (Cohousing-friendly Policies – Day 1) 

Architect, regenerative design practitioner, researcher, activist, Convener of the CA Community Development Working Group, Chair of Cohousing Australia

Elena is an architect (sometimes) turned sustainability educator, bike infrastructure advocate and cohousing aficionado. She has worked in corporate practice, and in general residential, from private dwellings through to high-density residential. Her passion is for citizen-led participatory processes that lead to regenerative outcomes stewarded through collaborative governance. Elena is passionate about facilitating urban interventions that build collective capacity so people and their communities can be prepared and responsive to the climate emergency and other social, economic and environmental hurdles.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elena-pereyra-10225135

Tim Riley (Alternative Development Models – Day 3)

Managing Director, Property Collectives

www.propertycollectives.com.au

Tim Riley is the founder and Managing Director of Property Collectives. Since 2010 Property Collectives has established itself as the leading deliberative development group in Australia. They focus on development & investment advisory, impact investment, and an at cost citizen led building group model which is developing 80 homes across 10 projects in Northcote, Thornbury, West & North Melbourne, St Kilda, Brunswick and Eltham.

Dr. Angelica Rojas-Gracia (Cohousing-friendly Policies – Day 1)

Co-creative Director of IncluDesign Architects

Angelica is a systems thinker and innovator who thrives on collaboration and enjoys design processes that bring together diverse knowledge and communities. She combines architecture, urban design, research and regenerative practice. 

IncluDesign is dedicated to co-creating great places to live, learn and be. Her practice offers design expertise for housing, education, master planning, placemaking and life. 

Past Speaking/Teaching Experience

Angelica has been an educator at the University of Melbourne and presented on numerous occasions including most recently for a Cohousing Australia webinar 

Leslie Shieh (Canadian Development Models – Day2) 

Co-fonder of Tomo Spaces

http://tomospaces.com/

Leslie Shieh is the co-founder of Tomo Spaces, a Vancouver-based real estate development firm. Tomo stands for Together More; as developers, operators, and researchers, the Tomo team believes in the power of place to enable people to do amazing things together. Together with Our Urban Village Cohousing Community, Tomo is developing a 12-unit cohousing project designed for sociability. Leslie holds a Master’s in City Planning from UC Berkeley, and completed a PhD in Urban Planning from University of British Columbia. In her work she brings together research, theory, and practice. She previously served on Vancouver City Planning Commission and Vancouver Urban Design Panel.

Kristopher Stevens (Canadian Development Models – Day 2) 

Executive Director, Cohousing Options

https://cohousingoptions.ca/

Kristopher is a community builder focused on advancing a more sustainable future for his son, family, friends and the people of Canada. He is an experienced leader and advisor in the field of sustainability with more than 15 years experience. Kristopher specializes in developing and implementing strategies that bring together commercial, public, indigenous and community partners to create individual, social, economic and ecological value.

Highlights from his career include: spurring seniors community living through alternatives to living alone and in institutions,  serving seven years as the Executive Director of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, initiating Ontario’s successful Green Energy and Economy Act campaign, recruiting executives for Fortune 500 multinationals in Asia and researching economic reform in Africa and the sensitive topic of social friction in Ontario’s electricity sector.

Eugenie Stockman (Community Led Cohousing – Day 3)

CEO of Co-operation Housing

Eugenie is the CEO of Co-operation Housing, a registered community housing provider specialising in the co-operative model. Her work with Co-operation Housing builds on her knowledge and experience as a sustainability educator, developer and consultant.

Eugenie’s work has a strong focus on community living. She successfully completed two small, and now multi-award-winning developments, in the Town of Victoria Park. She worked closely with Co-operation Housing on the development of new housing co-operatives prior to being appointed in the CEO role.

Eugenie’s qualifications include a Postgraduate Diploma in Sustainability and Advanced Diploma in Accounting. She brings experience in property development and the social and affordable housing sector and is an affiliate of an international network of cohousing professionals. She has previously served on not for profit boards and has completed relevant training facilitated by the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Eugenie is a 500 Communities affiliate and collaborates with Katie McCamant from Cohousing Solutions.

Marcus Zilker (Tour of Gleis 21 and Audewide – Day 2)

Founder and Partner at Einszueins Architektur.

Marcus completed his studies in architecture at the TU Wien and the ETSA Seville. From 2006-2015 he taught design for prospective builders at Nimmerrichter courses and took the builder examination in 2009 and the civil engineering examination in 2016. In addition to 12 years of experience in the planning and execution of residential construction projects of various scales, he has advanced training in the field of mediation and community building. Markus Zilker is a founding member of both the “Initiative für gemeinschaftliches Bauen und Wohnen“ and the “Wohnprojekt Wien“ co-housing project, which was awarded the Staatspreis für Architektur und Nachhaltigkeit in 2014, amongst others. Markus Zilker also has many years of experience in dealing with small and large group processes, from process design and communication to the moderation of workshops and working groups. As an expert on the subject of “Baugruppen“ (co-housing) and participation in planning, he can demonstrate national and international lectures at symposia, workshops and conferences.