Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: community design and construction

[Ian Higginbottom (Ian.Higginbottom]

Rob Sandelin wrote
>
>Might be a good balance to have both an architect and an experienced 
>builder/contractor work out the final plan issues, or have a plan 
>review by an experienced builder to find the gotchas in the design.
>
I would agree with this.  The architect that Cascade Cohousing used was not
strong on the fine detail.  We ended up with lots of non standard lengths
and sizes in our ealier houses and these definely added to their cost.  The
architect even made mistakes with the fire regulations and one house had to
unexpectidely put in fire rated windows.  Late houses used basic designs
from the same architect but with modifications by the builder to standardise
features and have cost a lot less to buid.

On the other hand with out the architect (particularly in the early stages
of construcion) the group could not have coped.  It was great to have
someone critique our ideas and even suggest some of his own.

However the greatest value of the architect (and this is only part in jest)
is as a scapegoat.  If you can't blame the architect for all the little
mistakes and design problems you risk blaming each other.  

Ian Higginbottom
Cascade Cohousing