Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Do cohousers care about "bricks and sticks"?

[sbraun (sbraun]

Hi Rob.

Thanks for your interesting and enjoyable posts to this list. I really
enjoy reading them.

However, here we disagree, I think. It sounds like your acid test for
community is a willingness to share cars. My own would be laughter. But
a red flag goes up for me when an outsider makes a judgment about
another community, or even makes a general judgment about what community
should be. There is a hint of superiority about that. 

I wonder if there aren't people out there for whom what you call "just a
condo" is really and truly deeply satisfying and life-enriching, and for
whom the kind of community you find fulfilling would seem like a prison.
There are many paths to happiness and fulfillment. We cohousers don't
have a corner on the right way to live.

Sheila

Project Coordinator
Champlain Valley Cohousing
www.champlainvalleycohousing.org
(802) 425-5030 phone
(802) 425-5033 fax
(802) 238-2667 cell


> -----Original Message-----
> From: cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org [mailto:cohousing-l-
> admin [at] cohousing.org] On Behalf Of Rob Sandelin
> Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 6:49 PM
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: RE: [C-L]_Do cohousers care about "bricks and sticks"?
> 
> I can show you a condo in Bellevue WA that has a brilliant cohousing
> design,
> pedestrian core, play area, nice community center that is central and
easy
> to look into from almost every unit. It even has a nice kitchen,
although
> not industrial grade.  It has very little community. The neighbors are
> pretty much still strangers, some after 5 years. It is nothing like a
> cohousing community in terms of relationships. I asked my guide there
if
> she
> felt comfortable asking to borrow a car. She looked at me like I was
from
> Mars. There is nothing there but the typical condo.
> 
>  So sorry, I do not believe in bricks and sticks having much to do
with
> community. Its not the architecture, its the people and their desires
and
> intentions that make cohousing what it is, a community by intention.
> There
> are hundreds of Intentional communities that are not cohousing,that
have
> good relationships and totally isolating architecture. If architecture
> really was the key why do those places work? Because it is the
intentions
> of
> the people do have those relationships. Take away that intention for
> relationship from cohousing, and all you have left is a condo. In
fact, at
> least one cohousing group, common ground in Aspen, lost its intention
and
> became just another condo. There are a couple other cohousing groups
which
> have large percentage of the people who live there not involved,
> apparently
> uninterested in community. They just want a  safe, cheap place to
live. It
> will interesting to see if those cohousing groups also don't just end
up
> as
> condos.
> 
> Rob Sandelin
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org
> [mailto:cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org]On Behalf Of Sharon Villines
> Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 8:36 AM
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_Do cohousers care about "bricks and sticks"?
> 
> 
> On 11/20/02 2:12 PM, "Howard Landman" <howard [at] polyamory.org> wrote:
> 
> > I believe that the design of the community can have an immense
> > impact on the day-to-day functioning of it.  Even something as
simple as
> > having the common house in the middle versus on one end can make a
huge
> > difference.
> 
> The bricks and sticks are important as long as they are related to a
> deeper
> value, building economically, socially, and ecologically sustainable
> communities. Intelligent investment in our personal spaces is a very
> fundamental way of putting our money (time and thought) where our
mouth
> is.
> Along with our hearts and feet.
> 
> The bricks and sticks are one of the unique and defining
characteristics
> of
> cohousing.
> 
> Sharon
> --
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
> 
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