Cohousing-L Mailing List: Outdoor dining/event space Advice Sought. Are you happy with the size of your outdoor space?

[Pare Gerou (paregerou]

Hello All,

We are designing our "plateia" at Greek Village Cohousing, and we could use
your thoughts about how happy you are with your outdoor dining space-
especially those communities who mostly live outdoors.

We will be dining outdoors most days and year round.  We chose our plot
because it feels like you are flying- the plot is on the side of a large
hill/small mountain, and the view is tremendous, but the downside is the
angle that provides the view also provides limited flat space for our flat,
central hardscape dining and event area as well as our common green.
Currently we have about 338 square meters unless we want to enlarge it, and
that would mean some would not have a view to the commons as well as
wonderful mountains. People chose to keep it at 338 for the amazing dual
view.

So we will fit both our hardscape Platiea and green central commons into a
space of around 338 square meters.  We will have miles of woods and open
land around us behind and around the village, but the central commons is
what most homes are oriented to as our town center and where
community events and dining will happen.  It is located right outside our
Common House

For those who eat outside a lot, do you feel your outdoor hardscape dining
space is too small?  too large?  just right?  Do you find it works well
with your events?  meals? Do you wish it were different?  If so, how? If
you provide feedback, please make sure to share the number of homes (or
people) and most of all the size of your hardscape dining area.  We will
have 33 homes.

For what it is worth, we will be cooking outside too.  We will have to fit
a significant grill, counter top, and a common "fourno" bread/pizza oven in
the tradition of Greek villages.  There is a huge, ancient Olive tree that
will have a round bench around it.  Other than that, and a tiny traditional
Greek Village fountain, it is flat space that can either have a hardscape,
or paths and garden and trees, or open green space or a combination.

We chose the combination of hardscape, but we are having trouble figuring
out how large our hardscape dining/event area should be and the ratio of
hardscape to green.

Thoughts?  Advice?

And keep us in mind for your extra special friends or relations who are
adventurous enough to want to live in Greece.  Now that we have our prices,
design, and are excavating, we are going to start to actually advertising
and grow.


With Appreciation,
Pare Gerou
Greek Village Cohousing