The aim of this paper is to discuss co-productive and collaborative processes in rural housing construction in Sweden. The ‘wicked problem’ addressed here is why it is so difficult to build new homes in Swedish rural areas. Our analysis shows that horizontally organised competences may be used in order to form innovative and creative spaces for dialogues around the realisation of house building. These spaces for dialogues are transformed into collaborative and coproductive social events for reconfiguring thoughts and actions in relation to ‘wicked problems’. Using Fagered, Sweden, as a case study, our results show that timing, as well as understanding the motivation of local groups and acknowledging the slowness of planning processes, are crucial for making change. © 2016 Taylor & Francis