More than 500,000 disadvantaged and low-income people across Asia have gained access to homes and communities they helped design and build, demonstrating how community-led housing can offer a more sustainable approach to urban development.
The model, known as “Collective Housing”, puts residents at the centre of the process, allowing them to jointly plan, design, build and manage their homes and neighbourhoods rather than simply buying properties designed and developed by others.
The approach was discussed at a panel titled “Collective Housing: Community-led Solutions for Sustainable and Resilient Cities in Asia” at Sustainability Expo 2026 (SX2026), where housing advocates and practitioners from Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar shared experiences of community-driven development.
Somsook Boonyabancha, chairperson of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR), an adviser to the board of the Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI) and chairperson of its Baan Mankong and Land Management Subcommittee, said communities must be empowered if cities are to become more resilient.
“We want cities that can adapt quickly, but how can we have such societies or cities if we do not have communities that are adaptive and sustainable?” she said.
Under the conventional housing model, architects design homes for developers to build and sell, leaving buyers to pay for properties they have had little say in designing. Collective Housing turns this approach around by allowing residents to shape not only their homes but also their neighbourhoods, from shared spaces for children to community facilities and infrastructure.
Ms Somsook is also a recipient of the Shaper Award at SX2026, Asean’s largest sustainability event. The award honours individuals whose roles and achievements have made an outstanding contribution to sustainable development across various fields.
Vidya Tanny, an Indonesian architect and project manager at the Rujak Center for Urban Studies, said communities were best placed to identify their own needs and should therefore play a central role in building resilient cities.
She cited post-tsunami reconstruction in Indonesia, where residents worked with experts to identify safe locations for new settlements, pool resources and rebuild homes and neighbourhood infrastructure after disaster assistance proved slow to arrive.
A similar approach was adopted in Myanmar following Cyclone Nargis in 2008. Vanlizar Aung, founder and director of Women for the World, said women’s groups took the lead in organising community reconstruction, mobilising savings and coordinating resources. The initiative reportedly helped build around 1,000 homes within two months, demonstrating the capacity of organised communities to respond to disaster without relying solely on government assistance.
In Thailand, community-led housing has also helped improve living conditions while preserving established neighbourhoods. Examples include railway-side communities in Taling Chan, where residents worked together to upgrade their homes and secure land tenure, and communities along Khlong Prem Prachakon, where residents were able to remain in their original neighbourhood while working with authorities to improve housing conditions and the canal environment. CODI has documented more than 50 projects under its railway-side community upgrading programme and related initiatives.
Ms Somsook said conventional urban development often leaves families isolated despite living in densely populated cities, weakening neighbourhood relationships and social support networks. Collective Housing, by contrast, reflects the traditional Asian way of living together and builds stronger communities with a greater collective voice.
UN-Habitat estimates that over 1.1 billion people live in slums and informal settlements, underscoring the scale of the global housing challenge and the need for more inclusive solutions.