Re: How much living space to you need?
From: James Kacki (jimkackimts.net)
Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 23:41:12 -0700 (PDT)
Thanks for the perspective Charles. It was very refreshing.- inspiring even!
James

On 20-May-08, at 12:59 AM, balaji [at] ouraynet.com wrote:


It is certainly true one can get by for less.  I lived in a fishing
village on the southeastern coast of India for seven years. The house was
one room and had about 500 square feet.  That was for six people.  We
cooked on a buffalo dung fire on the verandah, and the "facility" was the nearby sea shore. Most life was lived in public -- in the alleys between the huts, on the road, on the beach. And that, for an American, took a bit of getting used to. But I miss it, and that's why I go back for a few
weeks every year or two.  In a few weeks, we (my wife and 3 children)
leave New Zealand for the Amazon (eastern Ecuador) were we will live in a
tiny house on the edge of the rainforest, just down the road from the
erupting volcano, Tungarahua. Our friends are all hunters and gatherers,
and small-time horticulturalists.  It's great.

Well, perhaps we're a bit extreme -- we're both anthropologists -- but we appreciate the pleasures of community: a lesson we have learned from the Indians and Ecuadorians who never gave it up for the suburban alienation
we take for granted in America.

Charles Nuckolls
Utah Valley Cohousing
www.utahvalleycommons.com



At 7:44 AM -0400 5/19/08, Sharon Villines wrote:
In Manhattan, small apartments are also possible because people live
in public more. They tend to meet for dinner instead of entertaining
in because they have no cars and it is a pain to get uptown or
downtown. They meet in between instead. Go out for  the paper and
breakfast in the morning. Hang out in Starbucks with a laptop or a
book. People even meet clients in hotel lobbies -- the ones with the
comfortable furniture and a bar. A fern place.

This is true in many cultures (other than the United States). I
recall reading a report about how many square feet (on average) a
person needs to 'live'. Can't remember exact numbers, but people in
the U.S. required more square feet than any other culture. People in
Japan do very well in less than 200 square feet because they 'live'
outside as you describe above. There is a condo project in Seattle
that primarily houses moderate to high-income working class Asians.
The condos are less than 200 square feet.

I find 460 square feet a bit too tight for myself and my two cats. I
don't think I could handle living here very long if my only view was
the brick building next door.

Cheers!
Marganne
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