Development proposals

Suvana Cohousing will be part of a new neighbourhood at Northstowe being developed by TOWN, who specialise in cohousing and community-led projects, and Hill, one of the UK’s leading housebuilders.

Suvana is a community grounded in Buddhist values, and one of two cohousing groups that will form the heart of this new neighbourhood.

Following a process of codesign by Suvana cocreators, the development is now the subject of a planning application.

How Suvana has been taking shape

Our proposals have been developed through a collaborative process, working with TOWN and a design team led by Mole Architects. Here’s how things have progressed so far (scroll down for the history):

‘Rolling Submission Round’ launched

On 8 February 2026 the Suvana Coordination Group launched the ‘rolling submissions round’ where cocreators are invited to apply to reserve one of the remaining homes.

Details of which properties remain.

First 15 households reserve plots

In the initial submissions round, informal reservations have been confirmed for 15 properties.

Joining Pack launched

To coincide with the planning submission, on 24 November 2025 Suvana launched the Joining Pack for potential buyers.

This provides a great deal of rich information (easier to digest than the planning application!) about the community and homes, and invites our cocreators to apply to become part of the community and to make informal reservations for a plot.

Planning submission

In November 2025 TOWN - with their partners Hill Group, Homes England, Mole Architects and others - submitted a planning application to Greater Cambridge Shared Planning.

Public
consultation

On 10th July 2025, TOWN held a pre-planning submission public consultation exhibition in Northstowe to share the plans and gather feedback from local residents.

Codesign

From late 2024 and throughout 2025 we’ve taken part in a series of codesign workshops and online sessions with TOWN and Mole, as well as regular meetings with the Suvana Coordination Group (open to all cocreators).

These meetings have helped shape everything from the site layout to shared spaces.

Stay posted for the next stage of codesign in early 2026.

Design Brief

We developed a Design Brief from this Vision to guide how the homes, shared spaces, and overall community should take shape.

Vision

We began by agreeing a Shared Vision for Suvana – to create a community inspired by and embodying Buddhist values: loving-kindness, non-harm, generosity, simplicity, honest and helpful communication, and mindfulness.