Defining the spirit of a new over 55s community

Lend Lease have announced construction of a new over 55s community in north Canberra this week.  They’re running a competition on the radio for people to help them come up with a name and there are prizes to be won.  This got me thinking.  How can we capture the essence of a community in a name when the community hasn’t been built?   And what would an awesome over 55s community sound like if you could define it in a name?

Do we name it in optimism in hope that its spirit will take the form of its name?   If we did this we could use words like Aurora, and Vive and Amity (which means companionship) in a variety of forms.   Do we name it after traditional community values and its farming heritage? Then we’d use phrases like Ngunnawal village and Ngunnawal Green or Ngunnawal Homestead.    Or do we name it after the geography or topography or landscape elements of the community?  Like Aspect, Sandy Shores or Windermere Gardens or even the names of beautiful flowers or native plants like Grevillea Gardens or Wattlescape.  And what will give the community a “spirit” that can be spoken of in the name.  Surely it is the people and how they come together.

“Ngunnawal”, the suburb in which the new community will reside is to be an “over 55s lifestyle village”.  An estate of choice that is planned to consist of 161 single level two and three bedroom villas, complete with a two pavilion clubhouse, muti-use recreational green and stunning gardens at its social heart.  It will have a library, billiards room, lounge and dining areas, feature landscaped gardens and a lifestyle club with an indoor heated swimming pool and gym.  Sounds perfect to me.  And the spirit of the community will emerge as the community grows and finds its own rhythm in the village daily life.  It is amazing how important a name is.

When we named Starts at Sixty, we didn’t have a community then either.  We named our website in the hope that the vibe and energy we offered both through our name and our presence would take a life of its own.  Now it feels like we could never be called anything else.

So let’s set our mind to it today.  If you were to name a community that blends the historical values of Ngunnawal with the vibrance of what you would want out of a lifestyle village, what would it be?