Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood

Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood

Earthsong is a pioneering urban community housing development based on a co-housing philosophy, employing eco-building principles and permaculture design in a medium-density urban environment.

The project started in the late 1990's and the first 17 eco-houses of Stage One were completed in 2003. Stage Two consists of a further 14 eco-houses and a large "common-house" and is due to complete by mid-2007.

Earthsong is not just about eco-housing. The co-housing philosophy puts just as much empahasis on building a healthy community. If one were to consider what the defining characteristics of such a community might be one may well include such things as: supporting fellow community members; combining resources to meet challenges; sharing each other's successes and good fortune; and caring enough to go out of one's way to help others.

In early 2007 we received a loan application from a couple living in this community which suggests that Earthsong has clearly got something important right in developing the "community" part of this community development.

The application, from community members David Williams and Helen McNeil, was for a loan so that they could support another intending member to purchase a house at Earthsong. The intending member had arranged finance for the majority of the funds needed to purchase their unit but was restricted by their Bank's lending limits from reaching the total necessary. David and Helen offered to help out by providing the remaining portion of the funds and becoming a co-owner of the unit.

This offer made it possible for the purchase to go ahead and was a wonderfully constructive way of getting around some of the challenges that have resulted for home buyers from the surging house prices we have experienced in New Zealand over recent years.

This is not the first example of such collaboration that we have seen at Earthsong. Over the past few years since the completion of the first 17 units in Stage I of this project we have witnessed a number of collaborative purchases in different forms as people have found ways to pool their resources to achieve their goal of being part of this path-breaking community.

Despite the multitude of challenges that have been faced in the lengthy process of creating New Zealand's first urban co-housing community, they have clearly got some important things right at Earthsong. We at Prometheus again felt privileged to be able to facilitate yet another aspect of this positive community development.