Bozeman Architecture Firm Studio Cohab Wins National Housing Award — A Historic First for Montana

Bozeman-based Studio Cohab received the 2026 AIA Housing Award in the Community-Engaged Design category for Bozeman Cohousing, a net-zero energy neighborhood on 5.3 acres in south Bozeman.

The AIA Housing Award was established to recognize the best in housing design and is considered one of the most prestigious distinctions in American residential architecture. Winners are evaluated against the AIA Framework for Design Excellence, with judges considering if projects are sustainable, affordable, durable, innovative, socially impactful and beautiful. Competition is national and unsparing.

The only previous Montanan recipient was Avis Ranch in Clyde Park, by Fernau and Hartman Architects of Berkeley, California. A single-family custom residence that won in 2006. Bozeman Cohousing is the first Montanan project to win since, and the first time a Montana-based firm has taken home the honor.

A Community That Built Itself
Bozeman Cohousing was designed around the founding members' values of sustainability, affordability, and social equity. The cohousing model, which originated in Denmark, involves future residents directly in the design process from the earliest stages. Cohousing is also rooted in shared community resources while maintaining privacy. In this project, Studio Cohab engaged future residents in consensus-based design workshops, ensuring that every aspect of the community reflected residents' shared values.

That level of integration between process and place is exactly what the Community-Engaged Design category was created to recognize, and for the first time since its establishment four years ago, the jury found a project they believed to be worthy of the award.

Affordability as Architecture
Bozeman, like many other mountain towns, is experiencing an affordability crisis. It has become one of the fastest growing and most expensive areas in America with its population nearly doubling since 2010. This crisis is not exclusive to Bozeman, as many towns across the West and beyond are facing a similar crisis. With Bozeman Cohousing, Studio Cohab proposes a solution.
The dwellings employ a compact but comfortable design relying on the shared space of the common house, and the studio units, when sold, were the most affordable market-rate housing in the city. This feat was achieved through spatial efficiency and the inherent affordability of cohousing.

Consider what a co-housing community can own collectively that no individual household could alone. A woodshop, guest suite, even a flock of chickens and herd of goats. What is out of reach for any middle-class family, when divided across a community of 42, becomes accessible. Each person ends up with far more than they ever could’ve afforded alone. The same logic applies to labor. Maintaining a 5.3-acre neighborhood park sounds outlandish, however, if one resident weeds, another mows, and someone else gardens, no single person is doing more work than they would for an individual yard. The difference is that the collective result is something
incomparably more than what any person can maintain alone.

Additionally, two subsidized permanently affordable homes were created, funded voluntarily by the future residents and matched by the developer and city funding. The residents, through the participatory design process, collectively decided to create affordability for neighbors they hadn't yet met.

Net-Zero in the Mountain West
Sustainability was fundamental to the project's conception and execution.. Bozeman Cohousing achieves net-zero energy through a blend of super-insulated envelopes, airtight construction, heat pumps, and solar panels.

Bozeman Cohousing is the first net-zero energy cohousing community in the United States and the first cohousing community in Montana. That national distinction, achieved at market-rate price points in a frigid climate region, is a meaningful proof of concept for a region that has often looked elsewhere for models.

Why This Win Matters for Montana and the West
Studio Cohab's win is a signal that this engaged solution for the unique housing issues of the west can stand up against the very best housing design across the nation. Bozeman Cohousing was designed to house people, affordably, sustainably, and with community ownership over the result, and demonstrates the transformative potential of community-engaged architecture. Quoting architect Erik Bonnett "Bozeman Cohousing is a tactile example of how inspired design can confront the environmental and housing-affordability issues of the West."