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. Details below.

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:

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.

Design Brief

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

Codesign

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.

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.

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.

See all the documents submitted.

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.

The current proposals

Some of the plans that were presented at the public consultation event on 10th July 2025 are shown below. You can download this large pdf of the exhibition panels.

Or look through the planning application (with it’s 136 documents!)

Alternatively, if you are a cocreator, see the Joining Pack, which provides rich information very accessibly. The CGIs below are from the Joining Pack.