Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Elevators and exclusions

[Randy Sailer (randy.sailer]

The efficiency of buildings depends a lot on the environment. In sunny  
CA or in the south, it may be cheaper to build on the flat for several  
reasons: 1) compared to the northeast or upper midwest, deep footings  
are not required. Where I live you need footings to below the frost  
line which is something like 48 inches. You get cheap space by digging  
a little deeper and having a basement.... 2) taller,  more cubical  
buildings (the cubical part is important) have less surface area  
exposed to the weather (the roof of the first floor becomes the floor  
of the 2nd, etc.) and are, given the same insulation practices less  
expensive to build and heat. 3) Town houses (like apartments) can  
share more wall space, further reducing the surface area exposed to  
the weather. 4) Building up is relatively cheap compared to building  
out because you need smaller roofs and less foundation. [Our community  
did one, two and four. Our homes are all energy star 5+ rated].

The construction of brownstones in NYC is an enormous demonstration of  
those principles.

Many folks in our community designed their houses so if they become  
mobility impaired, they can live on the first floor.

One comment about this conversation... There are lots of kinds of  
disabilities. We are focusing almost entirely on mobility impairment.  
Others are important too.

Randy Sailer
Rocky Hill Cohousing


On May 19, 2008, at 6:43 PM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote:

> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 13:42:33 -0700
> From: "Jenny Guy" <jenstermeister [at] gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Elevators and exclusions
> To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Message-ID:
>         <82eb2d8f0805191342s52e769dese408b19dcf6130ae [at] mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Regarding economical building, and affording elevators:
>
> You mentioned you'd probably build townhouses to save money; I think  
> that
> townhouses are more costly than flats.  Many people consider them  
> "nicer"
> and they have the advantage that everyone's unit opens directly onto  
> the
> courtyard.  But every home needs a staircase, which costs more.  If  
> you
> build flats, all the ground floor flats are accessible without an  
> elevator,
> and all the second floor units could be accessible with a single  
> elevator,
> and a balcony connecting them.
>
> But elevator or no, I think you've got more accessibility and  
> significantly
> lower cost with flats than with townhouses.  Well, if you didn't  
> have an
> elevator you'd have more *livable* units with flats, and more
> *visitable*ones with townhouses.... I think you'd save more than
> enough for an elevator
> by eliminating all those internal staircases and the space they take  
> up.