On 8th February 2025, we had our first codesign workshop of the new year, picking up where we left off after our brief-setting weekend in November.

This was the first time we worked directly with Mole, the architects. Meredith, Shubhanaga, Alice, and Mengting were there representing Mole. It’s very exciting to have Shubhanaga, a Triratna Buddhist himself, working as the architect on this project. The TOWN team was there as well, which included Frances, Emma, and Jonny.

The main purpose of the day was not to make decisions, but rather for Mole and TOWN to interact directly with cocreators and gather detailed feedback. This feedback will then feed into Mole’s next round of designs on the site, which we can then give further feedback on. Codesign is an iterative process!

The workshop was engaging and interactive -- we had loads of fun experimenting with potential layouts of the common house, lane, and garden. Mole provided site maps, as well as cut-outs of features we specified in the brief-setting weekend, for us to play with.

The 6-hour workshop was divided into five activities, along with some time for eating and socialising. The activities were done in small groups. Groups included four cocreators and one representative from either Mole or TOWN.

After each of the four activities, there was usually a chance for each group to share something about their conversation in the wider group.

In the first activity, each group got a map of the site and was encouraged to think about how they would move around the site if they were living there. What journeys would they make on a regular basis? Examples of a “journey” include a trip to the laundry room, to the garden, or to the bike shed.

The second activity was about the shape and location of the common house. We were given three potential common house shapes to go in three locations in the current site plan. Each group discussed the benefits and compromises of each option and was asked to choose a favourite. Some groups found it quite difficult to choose!

The third task was to then take the favourite common house shape and figure out the best layout for the internal space. We had squares of different sizes to represent spaces that we had specified in the brief-setting weekend. This gave us a good idea of whether we felt that spaces were sized appropriately.

The point of this exercise was not to come up with a perfect floorplan, but rather for Mole to understand the requirements for these spaces in terms of what they should be close to or far away from. For example, we would prefer for the shrine room to NOT be directly next to a children’s playroom. Or, for example, that the co-working space should have windows with a nice view.

The fourth task was about the lane that will run between Suvana and the neighbouring cohousing community. These two communities will be separate in many ways, but there is the potential to share certain spaces with them, which could make for a more efficient use of space. Mole had brought some sample images of lanes in existing cohousing communities and encouraged us to think about which features we might like to include in Suvana.

The final task was about designing the shared garden space. Again, we had fun cut-outs available to us representing allotments, terrace, playground, compost, bike sheds, a ritual space, and so on.

The reviews of the day were overwhelmingly positive. One of our cocreators summed it up nicely with the words “we created so much more together than any of us would have done on their own”.

We have more co-design sessions coming up in February and March. They are online, which means you can join from anywhere in the world. It might not be quite as much fun as playing with paper and scissors, but we hope you’ll join us regardless!