Cohousing-L Mailing List: Common House Size

[Joani Blank (jeblank]

Solterrans,

You would be wise to look closely at the common house at Nyland CoHousing
which is about the same size as Solterra. It works extremely well.
Cambridge CoHousing is about your size too, but its Common House is not  as
functional or attractive as Nyland's, IMHO. It seems to spread out to me,
and lacks coziness which I value highly. (Now don't take this personally,
my friends at Cambridge!)
 
I hope that you will consider using a cohousing professional (esp. The
Cohousing Company or Mary Kraus) to advise you about your common house
design starting with the size. If you use coho professionals for only one
thing in your planning, I think Common House Design should be it.

I could tell you about Doyle Street (12 households--CH totals 2000 sf) and
Old Oakland (20 households--CH totals 3450sf), but these are both extremely
tight urban sites so there are lots of considerations that you don't have. 

Hope that someone from your group will participate in Ann Zabaldo's
Teletalk this Thursday. As she said, Mary Kraus will be the guest and will
be talking about common house problems and solutions.

Joani Blank
Doyle Street and Old Oakland Cohousing (SF Bay Area)