Building the Common House First
From: Graham Meltzer (grahamgrahammeltzer.com)
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 15:37:33 -0700 (MST)
Hi folks

Whilst I've been lurking here for years and only occasionally contributing, I 
feel that's going to change.  Finally after 10 or 12 years of researching and 
writing about cohousing, and visiting many of you in the process, I am finally 
involved in a development group of my own.  And it's a great joy, I can tell 
you.  Cohousing has been slow to establish in Australia (only three projects in 
15 years).  We will be the forth.

Our group is fortunate.  We are planning to develop a cohousing project of 
about 20 households within an ecovillage of about 150 households.  The site is 
gorgeous, rural, but within easy reach of cities and the beach.  So we are 
already well down the cohousing development track before we start.  We have 
land.  But we also have an unnaturally compressed timeline since we have to be 
ready as a group to place deposits on a neighbourhood of blocks when the 
ecovillage land hits the market in about May or June.  The developers will 
throw us some slack, but not all that much.  They are certainly supportive and 
keen to have us.  
They were inspired by Village Homes in Davis and set out the house lots along 
those lines, in hamlets with the house lots facing into a green, 
pedestrian/cycling space ... very conducive to cohousing.

We have had a public meeting which was followed last weekend by our first group 
meeting of about 10 people.  We have a list of interested others of about 30.  
We're about to organise our own part of the quite comprehensive Ecovillage Web 
site ( http://www.theecocommunity.com.au/ )  in order to attract new members 
and facilitate communication amongst ourselves via a forum there.  So I think 
we're well organised and in good shape.  We have agreed to meet weekly since we 
have so little time.  We are now devoting some 2 or 3 weeks to visioning.  It 
may prove to take longer.  Anyway, here is my question, probably the first of 
many.

Have any groups attempted to build the common house first?  I know there are 
some groups, Marsh Commons for example, that had an existing building to 
utilise as a common house before building the homes.  That's not our situation. 
And I know that most projects are built in one hit by a single contractor.  
However, ours is a lot development model so we can build piecemeal.  I guess 
the question is directed at those groups that also used a lot development 
model.  

In thinking about and writing up my personal vision for the project, this is 
what I envisaged.  That the common house be built first and used as a 'home' 
for the community, but also as accommodation for those then building their 
houses.  There is likely to be a lot of self build, but it could also 
accommodate contractors and sub contractors.  My rationale is partly practical 
and partly symbolic.  Because the site is rural, it will vastly reduce 
commuting to have on-site accommodation.  But I'm also worried that if people 
begin by building their homes the whole emphasis of the project might swing 
away from community priorities toward private preoccupations.  The common house 
may not be built for quite some time, years even.  For me personally, that 
would be a big concern.  I'm in this for the communalism, not to build my dream 
home. I want to build my dream community instead, and I figure building the 
common house first would be a great way to ensure that community activities and 
spirit and bonding got happening up front ... fast and furious.

Have there been any other groups consider this option or carry it out?  If so, 
I'd love to hear how it went.

Thanks

Graham

graham meltzer
contemporary photography
15/27 ballow st, fortitude valley, qld 4006
ph: 07 3257 4852      web: www.grahammeltzer.com



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