Hedy Tung

Yale Divinity School will open its environmentally-friendly dormitory next academic year. 

Living Village is a new residential space that will produce zero waste and house around 50 of the Divinity School’s students. It is set to open in July 2025, and students will start living in the space beginning in August 2025. 

“We train people to build communities and want to model community for them. We also know that housing is the greatest need our students have and want to make available affordable housing that is close to the school and makes an eco-theological statement,” Gregory Sterling, dean of Yale Divinity School, wrote to the News.

Sterling noted that one of the Living Village’s goals is to “restore the residential character of the school” and underscored the theological imperative that the community provides. In the early 2000s, students lived in the Divinity School’s Quad, but now are housed with other graduate students away from the school. 

Tom Krattenmaker, communications director at Yale Divinity School, hopes that the project will inspire students who study at YDS and sees this project as essential to the education of YDS students.

“We also see the Living Village as making a major contribution to the education and formation of our students, who after YDS will go out into the world and lead communities and organizations,” Krattenmaker wrote to the News.

Sterling shared Krattenmaker’s sentiment and hopes that the Living Village will lead students to think about how they can lead a different lifestyle when they graduate. 

Kathy Ma DIV ’26, a second-year student at the Divinity School, studied urban planning in the United Kingdom and worked in the field for 10 years before deciding to shift careers. 

“Theology and religion are really important in my life. Also, urban planning is something I love, and I never knew how to combine them,” said Ma. “Through Living Village, I really did find the intersecting point of making that possible.”

This past summer, Ma helped the project by ensuring that it would meet sustainability standards, set out by the International Living Future Institute in their Living Building Challenge. These include generating 105 percent of the building’s electricity demands, treating wastewater on site and protecting the nearby ecology.

Sterling emphasized the importance of the construction project to meet these standards. 

“We believe that we have an ethical obligation to build in a way that promotes sustainability and combats climate change. Hence we elected to build the most sustainable structure currently known,” Sterling wrote to the News.

Ma recalled feeling lost at the beginning of her time at the Divinity School. Working on this project has given her a sense of meaning in combining two interests that she cares about deeply. 

She credited YDS for helping to make this possible and is thinking about doing a thesis on theology and the environment while at Yale. 

Tours of the construction site begin Oct. 23 at 4 p.m. and are open to all. 

Correction, Oct. 2: The previous version of the article incorrectly stated the number of students who will be housed in the Living Village.