Re: Urban cohousing: Common house on roof?
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com)
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:17:39 -0800 (PST)

On Jan 10, 2008, at 4:55 AM, Joani Blank wrote:

As for getting people to use the CH, yes, put the mail boxes up
there, and not right next to the elevator.

Joani's message certainly represents some of the basic theories about building cohousing. Geographic proximity is certainly helpful in creating relationships and traffic flow can be used artfully. But when the theory distorts the efficiency of people's lives, they will circumvent it.

We have parking on the periphery that places parking a block away from some people's homes so they park on the street. That means they do not come near the commonhouse to pick up their mail. They pick it up much less frequently or late at night before going to bed or while walking the dog. When others pick up their mail and stop to chat, it is usually very quick. They are not likely to sit down and talk. They are tired and hungry and in a hurry. And have kids in tow.

Most of our residents have their own washer and dryers and even the ones who do use the laundry don't stay in the commonhouse to chat or whatever. They go, often running, home again because they are busy working or working out. Some leave their laundry and pick it up the next day. Several households bought their own machines after finding the commonhouse laundry too inconvenient. And the commonhouse machines are free.

Bulletin boards have gone the way of the dodo bird so people do not stand around reading them.

Keeping coffee, tea, and hot chocolate in the commonhouse has not worked because someone has to clean it up -- and very few people clean up after themselves. Beer in the fridge doesn't work because parents don't want it accessible to teenagers. Other parents don't want soda in the commonhouse.

Things that do create a buzz in the commonhouse besides scheduled meals and other events:

Kids room. Parents bring kids under six to the dining room and adjacent kids room to play. A ping pong table would bring the older kids but their parents wouldn't come with them. Some adults would play ping pong sometimes but it isn't a very good spectator sport because it is irritating to hear the ball bouncing. You dont' sit around and talk when other people are playing.

Television. Especially a special television that people don't have at home. We have hand me downs but we do have satellite with HBO so people do congregate to watch sporting events and movies. Some do not have satellite at home so they watch in the commonhouse. But this is at most a weekly event. During the holidays from Christmas to New Years Eve we have movies each night.

Jigsaw puzzles. We usually have a table with a puzzle set up. People say "meet me by the puzzle" where they wait until everyone gets together to go out for dinner. Someone is often there. We now have a 9,000 piece puzzle set up. Many of us are sad that it has to be taken down because it means someone is OFTEN there working on it or sitting talking to the people who are working. Finding someone in the commonhouse is much more likely. But it takes up four tables and an equivalent amount of space so we are crunched at other events.

Many uses of a centrally located commonhouse are the same uses one would make of a hallway, which is one reason to make a larger mailbox area. Then people can stand comfortably and chat. This would mean wider hallways with good doors so people standing in the hallway aren't bothering other people inside their units.

The standard theories of how to design cohousing may have attracted people who fit the theory. As cohousing grows, I think more diverse people are attracted and they don't fit the mold. Our meal program, I don't think, will ever be strong because people get home from work too late to want to cook and the variety of diets makes a common meal complicated. You just can't make an almost zero carb, a vegan, and everything in between PLUS kid friendly and Weight Watchers meal easily or quickly. And any given cook won't understand the requirements or the importance of various elements of those various diets. We do BYOD meals too. People come with trays. This means no clean up either.

I don't think people will be happy going to the roof to get their mail and you will need to double your elevator maintenance contract because the elevator would get more use if they did. One person will probably go up to get the mail for all the others on their floor.

A commonhouse on the roof may not be ideal but it would be much more workable than no commonhouse or an inconveniently designed building. Remember those neighborhoods with curlicue streets and dead-ends where no one could find your house? And the post office finally put mailboxes at the entrance because new mail carriers couldn't find the houses?

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


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