Marmalade Lane: How a Council & its Citizens created a community - Together

Marmalade Lane in Cambridge, United Kingdom, is an award winning 42 home multi-generational cohousing community completed in late 2018.

An innovative partnership between Council, developer and future residents, it received a 2019 RIBA National Award and was shortlisted in 2022 for the Mies Van De Rohe Award.

Part of a larger urban fringe development and formed of townhouses, apartments and masonettes (the result of a co-design process with the future residents, council & developer), the project features extensive community facilities, an extensive shared garden and car-free lane.

The project was enabled by a partnership involving the landowner, Cambridge City Council, developers TOWN and Cambridge Cohousing's members and future residents.

Join Frances Wright, resident and Head of Community Partnering at TOWN for a presentation on the origins the project and pratical learnings 5 years after its completion.

This will be followed by a panel discussion focused on how we can take these learnings and apply them to an Australian context.

Participating in the panel will be:

• Elena Pererya - Cohousing Australia
• Teresa Dominik - Cohousing Australia & Brougham Street Cohousing in Eltham
• Thern Robert - Brougham Street Cohousing
• Tim Riley - Property Collectives

Check out our recent blog post for more information.

“Imagine a world where homes were built according to the needs of residents rather than the profits of house builders, a place where land was allocated with the best long-term value in mind, rather than flogged off to the highest bidder, and where politicians’ claims of “creating communities” actually rang true. It might be something like Marmalade Lane in Cambridge”

The Guardian