Cohousing-L Mailing List: attached vs detached

[Audrey Watson (audrey]

I agree, designing for noise isolation is important, we don't have too many
conflicts about that, as our units were fairly well designed. (although
being close, noise does travel when windows are open, but that would require
a lot of distance to stop).  
We do sharing of some utilities within buildings (heat, hot water), and
there are times that we wish those were individually metered, (we have a
formula, but it can cause conflict). 
We also don't individually meter water, and although that doesn't cause
conflict, I think it might cause better conservation if we could break that
down at a smaller level.
Even though all our homes are clustered, and easy walking distance, the
close groups do form "neighborhoods", so proximity even by hundreds of feet,
makes a difference. We have a mixture of duplexes, 1 4-plex, 1 6-plex.
Audrey watson, winslow cohousing

> Does being so close cause
> interpersonal or societal conflicts that might not arise in detached
> housing.  (I understand the green (environmental) and energy  
> advantages
> of single building construction, but this question is about the
> interpersonal implications). Anyone in that type of co-housing care to
> comment?

Good acoustics is important of units are attached. Dump money into  
those walls.

And have play areas for older kids away from living areas.

Otherwise, the proximity is nice. I don't have to charge across a  
lawn to pop in to my neighbor's house. I can go see any one of  
upwards of 50 people or go to the CH without trudging in the rain. I  
think about that when I look at site plans with single family or two  
family units spread out all over the place. How does it affect their  
relationship to the common house? To the people at the other end?

Even in buildings that were not cohousing, I had closer relationships  
with people on my floor than with any of my neighbors in detached  
housing neighborhoods I've lived in. All these buildings had rules  
about what could be done and what couldn't be done -- like leaving  
your things in the hallways or what you could store on a balcony.  
Frankly, I wish we had more of these and there would be fewer conflicts.

But you can't have relationship without conflict. And no matter how  
far apart the houses are, you can still see them. And hear them. I  
don't think detached houses are a solution to conflict.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org



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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2007 05:05:37 -0700 (PDT)
From: Molly Lazar <mollyschaefer [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ attached vs detached
To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Message-ID: <894431.65888.qm [at] web31803.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Our neighborhood, Shadowlake Village in Blacksburg,  has a mixture of single
family homes, duplexes, and townhomes.  Because my husband and I were some
of the last buyers, we had to buy what was left-- a single family home.
Since then I have joked that I have "duplex envy."  Our neighbors who share
a porch seem to have more fun.  They can have more spaces for hosting people
and hang out together a lot.  It helped that most of the folks were friends
with their duplexmates before move-in.  

Molly

On Jul 2, 2007, at 2:07 PM, James Kacki wrote:

> Does being so close cause
> interpersonal or societal conflicts that might not arise in detached
> housing.  (I understand the green (environmental) and energy  
> advantages
> of single building construction, but this question is about the
> interpersonal implications). Anyone in that type of co-housing care to
> comment?