"Housing Diversity Means Diverse Housing": Blending Generative AI into Speculative Design in Rural Co-Housing Communities

In response to various environmental and societal challenges, co-housing has emerged to support social cohesion, grassroots innovation and ecological regeneration. Co-housing communities typically have smaller personal spaces, closer neighbourly relationships, and engage in more mutually supportive sustainable practices. To understand such communities’ motivations and visions, we developed a speculative design tool that harnesses Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to facilitate the envisioning of alternative future scenarios that challenge prevailing values, beliefs, lifestyles, and ways of knowing in contemporary society. Within the context of co-housing communities, we conducted a participatory design study with participants in co-creating their future communities. This paper unpacks implications and also reflects on the co-design approach employing GenAI. Our main findings highlight that GenAI, as a catalyst for imagination, empowers individuals to create visualisations that pose questions through a plural and situated speculative discourse.