Designing for connection in multi-unit housing: Lessons from Little Mountain Cohousing

On May 21, 2026, Hey Neighbour Collective, Happy Cities and SFU Renewable Cities co-hosted a tour of Little Mountain Cohousing for 21 planners and city staff from eight municipalities.

The tour showcased Little Mountain Cohousing as a leading example of design and community building practices that support social connection. Happy Cities highlighted design features that encourage social interaction, and Little Mountain Cohousing residents shared their experience of living in cohousing.

Cohousing: A resident-led model for connection 

Little Mountain Cohousing operates under a cohousing model, combining private homes and shared spaces with a self-managed community built around participation, sharing and neighbourly support. 

Residents co-designed the building and use a consensus model for collective decisions. The six-storey building has many flexible shared spaces, from small nooks to larger amenity spaces such as a music room and coworking space.

Activated shared spaces 

Here are some highlights of the shared spaces at Little Mountain Cohousing and how residents use them.   

Social lobby

Connection starts at the entrance of Little Mountain Cohousing, where welcoming sofas and chairs near the mailboxes create a natural gathering place. Residents use the lobby for evening socials and impromptu chats as they come and go throughout the day.  

Elevator nooks

On most floors, small nooks near the elevator provide places for residents to sit, gather and play outside their homes. Each nook supports different activities, from reading and homework, to crafts, toys and puzzles.

Flexible Spaces

Residents designed the building’s shared spaces to adapt over time. With an exemption from the City of Vancouver, they collectively chose to provide fewer car parking stalls in exchange for a tool workshop, aflexible space currently used as a music room, and more bike parking than is typical in a multi-unit building.

Instead of offering private rooftop spaces for each unit, Little Mountain Cohousing has a shared rooftop with gathering spaces and a community garden. Each unit has a private balcony, while the rooftop provides additional communal space. 

Takeaways for other housing providers

While Little Mountain Cohousing integrated social connection from the project’s inception, many of its connection-building practices and features can apply to other housing providers, even with modest budgets. Small interventions, such as adding seating, activities or art in underused spaces, creating flexible amenity spaces that can adapt to residents’ needs and preserving some spaces for collective use, can all support resident connection.

Although Little Mountain Cohousing is not affordable housing, mixed-income apartment buildings designed for community and social principles also exist, such as Co:Here in Vancouver.

What participants took away 

Participants left the tour inspired by the thoughtful spaces and systems that Little Mountain Cohousing residents co-created for their home.

When asked, “What are you taking away from this tour?” participants shared:

“New ways to activate common spaces in both professional practice and my personal life.”

“I need to learn more about how to make/enable cohousing via policy.”

“How you can be creative with the amenity spaces.”

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Thank you to our funders 

Thank you to the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions and the Max Bell Foundation for their support of this tour.