An Innovative Housing Forum being planned for May 17 aims to start a conversation about collaborative and community-focused styles of accommodation.

One of the organisers, Cheryl Graham, said the forum arose out of last year’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas in the town, which included a session on housing.

“We have no agenda in terms of what’s going to come out of it,” she said.

“It’s really information gathering and getting people together.”

Ms Graham said higher density housing, not common in rural towns, and more shared facilities could prove sustainable ways forward.

“In a lot of areas, we’ve lost that connection, there’s no longer the corner store that people would walk down to and incidentally meet their neighbours and meet people,” she said.

“There’s a whole lot of efficiencies with townhouses; if two sides of the house are abutting another house, all of a sudden you save the cost of external walls, you’ve also made it a lot more efficient because you don’t have that heat loss and heat gain through external walls.”

Scheduled for the Yackandandah hall between 7pm and 9.30pm, the forum has also attracted interest from people in Benalla, Wodonga and Wangaratta.

The speakers include city architects and urban designers as well as Yackandandah Health chief executive Annette Nuck and Indigo Council manager planning Ian Scholes.

Melbourne-based local government urban designer Andy Fergus said a more design-led approach to planning could apply to country towns as well as inner cities.

“Having architects and designers working with planners in development policy so it creates great outcomes,” he said.

“There are possibilities within a rural setting that you couldn’t dream of in a city context in terms of modesty of investment required, in terms of the value of land and in terms of community cohesion.

“The smaller the community, the easier it is to work together and have a common mission.”