Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Apartment style cohousing [was: Cohousing in L.A. ??

[Chris ScottHanson (chris]

I believe that cohousers are all cultural creatives, (see also LOHAS 
market)  with values aligned with GREEN, SUSTAINABLE, AND COMMUNITY.

A fundamental part of achieving green and sustainable is reducing the 
use of and dependence on the car.  This requires that groups wanting to 
be a green, sustainable communities should consider, at least, adaptive 
reuse of buildings on existing infrastructure within existing cities 
and small towns.

Reduce - reuse - recycle !!

We can reduce consumption (and sprawl) by recycling old buildings, and 
adaptively reusing them as housing, and mixed use communities.

Chris

On Aug 18, 2004, at 7:45 AM, Fred H Olson wrote:

> On Mon, 16 Aug 2004, Chris ScottHanson wrote:
>
> > This might be an interesting site for cohousing in LA.
> >
> > Cut and paste this URL into your webbrowser for details:
> > http://marketing.cbre.com/losangeles/urb_redev/gerry/gerry.html
> >
> > Anyone interested, or know anyone who might be interested?
> >
> > Chris ScottHanson
>
> Hi Chris,
>
> In the US the dominant form of cohousing has 1- 4 units per building 
> with
> each unit having a door that opens onto the outdoor common street or
> courtyard.  Is the term townhouses appropriate here? Of course there 
> are
> a few alternate forms and variations.
>
> > From my limited familiarity, it is my impression that in Sweden it is 
> > much
> more common for cohousing communities ("Kollektivhus" - collective
> housing) to more resemble apartment buildings with apartments on 
> several
> upper floors and the common space on the first floor.
>
> For locations where land availability is restricted this form can work.
> Chris, I presume something like this is what you had in mind when you
> pointed out the LA building.
>
> One very specific thing that would be helpful would be some terms to
> describe the alternatives. Townhouse vs apartment style?  Unfortuntely 
> it
> is harder to get an image of apartment style cohousing.  One image I 
> offer
> is of Bo-90 in Copenhagen which has connected decks on each residential
> floor as see in the image at:
> http://home.worldonline.dk/bo90/home/bo90.htm
>
> Anyone care to comment on the relative merits and disadvantages?  
> Folks on
> the list who live in such places?  Cambridige Cohousing is a hybrid 
> that
> includes a big building with elevators and some townhouses which seems
> like a nice compromise.
>
> In the US the popularity of the single family house probably makes it
> inevitable that most cohousing groups will opt for designs with closer
> connection to the outdoors and having a little land around units.  But 
> I
> think it would be useful for us to be more aware of and consider 
> alternate
> forms where appropriate.
>
> Fred
>
> --
> Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
> Communications for Justice - My new listserv org.       UU, Linux
> My Link Page: http://fholson.cohousing.org       Ham radio:WB0YQM
> fholson at cohousing.org   612-588-9532   (7am-10pm Central time)
>
>
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