Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Is Commonspace cohousing? [was: We're in Time!

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Nov 20, 2017, at 10:50 AM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> I think cohousing is a social contract, not a collection of architectural 
> features.  [snip] And the shared common house clearly is a vital asset for 
> instantiating the other values.  The contract can exist in a great many 
> different architectural configurations … but the architecture will not, of 
> itself, create the contract.

I agree, but it would be an interesting research study, particularly since you 
are an architect, to study the ways in which the architecture has influenced 
the relationships of people within the community.

We have stacked units surrounding the CH, for example, and townhouses in two 
wing extending almost a block. It’s a U shape. For those of us who can go to 
the CH by walking 10-40 feet and enter without keys or codes, must have a 
different relationship to it than those who park on the street near their 
houses and visit the CH 2-3 times a week or less—and even less than partners 
when only one gets the mail. Those in the stacked apartments in and around the 
CH are in and out that many times a day.

The people on the first floor on the path from the parking lot and Metro can 
make contact by sitting at their window and watching for people to walk by. 
They must have different contact experiences than those of us on the 2nd and 
3rd floors where only 1-2 neighbors ever walk by.

It must be different in attached and stacked dwellings than in a 
lot-development model where it can be more than a block to the CH. I can walk 
10 feet to a neighbor’s door and don’t have to put on a jacket or even shoes. 
To walk from the other end of the community or even across the green means 
coats, shoes, etc. 

The stacked units around the piazza and CH have a city feel and the townhouses 
on the green the suburbs. Although not all the units on the green are 
townhouses. Some are one-two bedroom units, but still being on the green would 
be a different experience of the grounds.

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