Building the Common House First | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
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 _______________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org Unsubscribe and other info: http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L
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Building the Common House First Graham Meltzer, February 15 2004
- Re: Building the Common House First Jillian Downey, February 17 2004
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