Robin Allison

Robin Allison is a New Zealand architect and the designer of a co-housing community in west Auckland. The community is New Zealand's first purpose-built co-housing development.

Allison grew up in Bucklands Beach, Auckland. In 1973, she moved to Dunedin to study medicine at the University of Otago. She soon changed to study anthropology and psychology and then left university the following year. After some years working and travelling overseas, she moved back to Auckland and enrolled in architecture at the University of Auckland, starting her course in 1980.

Allison had two children while studying, and completed her degree in 1986. After graduating, she tutored in solar design at the University of Auckland. From 1990 to 1992, Allison worked for Housing New Zealand and wrote the guidelines for thermal performance and environmental performance for Housing New Zealand's revised code for the design of their housing units.

In 1993 she established her own sustainable architecture practice. Her residential projects featured passive solar building design principles and were designed using earth and untreated timber framing.

In 1995, Allison initiated a project to develop a co-housing development located in Rānui, west Auckland, called Earthsong. She developed the project vision and group agreements around decision-making, group process and eco-design, as well as the construction aspects ofmanaging contracts, budgets and detailed oversight of the building. The project was completed in 2008. In 2020, she published a book describing the process of developing the community.

Allison is a fellow of the New Zealand Social Entrepreneur Fellowship.

Publications

• Allison R. (2020). Cohousing for life: a practical and personal story of Earthsong Eco-neighbourhood. Mary Egan Publishing.