Community

In the city of Munich, a groundbreaking endeavour is transforming communal living. Crafted by architectural firm Peter Haimerl Architektur, the Clusterwohnen Wabenhaus – aka the Honeycomb House – is a symbol of efficiency and community harmony.

K20 Architecture was commissioned to design a new community center in Bayswater, a suburb of Melbourne. In response, it delivered a building that makes use of local and recycled materials and features solar power and rainwater collection systems.

A new residential development in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, is aimed at treading lightly on the ground, while fostering a sense of community among residents. 122 Roseneath St., in Clifton Hill, will offer a variety of one- to three-bedroom apartments and townhouses with small footprints.

We've featured Dwell Development a number of times for its forward-thinking, green homes. Now, however, it has upped the ante with the completion of a 42-home sustainable micro-community in Seattle, US, called New Rainier Vista.

A town near Toronto, Canada, is home to a new community-supported lending library with a compelling design. Newmarket's Story Pod is an unstaffed kiosk that's opened up like a book during the day to allow visitors to borrow and donate books and sit on the benches inside to read.

The Collective Stratford, in London, UK, is described by its architects as a "new form of shared living accommodation." Like the Common in Brooklyn, US, it will provide affordable housing within a community. In addition, though, it will offer office space and a start-up incubator for its residents.

A community space, garden and kitchen in London is feeding its customers with food grown in skips (aka dumpsters). The Skip Garden is designed to be easily moved around unused development spaces. It is built with recycled materials and employs organic farming techniques.

Tiny houses tend to be highly functional and efficient. The shelters at an exhibition in Amsterdam, however, focus less on functionality and more on artistic license. UrbanCampsite Amsterdam features a host of "extraordinary sleeping accommodations" in an "exciting landscape."

Smart Urban Villages is planning to create medium-density, sustainably designed housing communities with optional shared meals, mortgage-free long term leases and pools of shared vehicles to cut down on car ownership costs.

A project by Seattle-based charity Sawhorse Revolution is both educating young people and creating accommodation for the homeless. The Impossible City is a community of housing built by local teens as they learn new skills. The accommodation is designed to be affordable, sustainable and movable.

Humanitarian design organization Orkidstudio recently completed work on an orphanage that houses disadvantaged and homeless kids in Kenya and sports some good green design.

For the past couple of years, UNICEF Uganda and partners have been designing, developing, prototyping and rolling out youth-focused community computers that can operate on- or off-grid. The UK's Aleutia is now working on a new open source, low power computer system for the updated Digital Drum.