The initial Microvillage project explored the viability of increasing the supply of affordable small houses. It focused on people with limited funds who wanted to live in homes that minimise consumption of materials, land and energy, and which link with the community in meaningful ways.

Together, the Microvillage projects demonstrate an arc from research engagement to impact that underpins all of HOME’s projects. In this case, via sustained partnerships between philanthropy and industry, the research moved from understanding community needs to policy/design recommendations, to built outcomes, and to the evaluation of a new housing model for other contexts of housing precarity.