Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Question on Design of your Common House

[Nancy Baumeister (nancybee]

On 2/28/2011 6:09 PM, Janet Hesselberth Pelletier wrote:
> Hi All,
> Here at Three Groves Ecovillage, we are gearing up for our Design Charettes
> with the architects. We have very carefully documented what we think we need
> for housing and the Common House, but we'd like some input from you on the
> Common House. Any input you have would be greatly appreciated, but in
> particular, we'd like to hear:
>
> 1. How many homes are in your community and how many people live there? (To
> give us a baseline on size.)
34 homes and 70 people (55 adults and 15 kids).
> 2. How many guest rooms are in your Common House? Do they get used
> frequently or do they stay empty?
One guest room and it is in use frequently.
> 3. What is the best part of your Common House?
The best part is the large open kitchen and dining room which is big enough for 
dances, talks, and spreading out to can veggies. Last weekend we had a madrigal 
feast with singing and costumes skits.

Second best is a living room with a wood stove that can get the room really hot.
> 4. What do you wish you had done differently in your Common House? (Space
> that is under-utilized, features that were not needed or that you wish you
> had, etc.)
I wish there was a back exit from the kitchen to the entrance hall. There is a 
back door to the pantry that goes to the out of doors and to get to the entrance 
hall you have to go all the way around the building. Otherwise the only way 
toget back to the entranceway from the kitchen out of the kitchen is through the 
dining hall and when we really fill it up with chairs it is 
difficult/awkward/disruptive to move between the kitchen and the entrance hall.. 
. It means that it is harder for cooking type activities to operate in the 
background. It makes transition between food/potluck activity to speaker 
activity slightly more difficult. And we have a back door that we don't use. I 
think the original thought was that it would be for food deliveries since it 
enters the kitchen through the pantry. In fact it is almost never used.

You can see drawings at https://www.cohoecovillage.org/homes/design.shtml go 
down to commonhouse drawing.

Nancy
> Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom.
>
> Janet H. Pelletier
> Three Groves Ecovillage
> Building a Green Community Together.
> West Grove, PA
> www.threegrovesecovillage.org
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