Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Urban cohousing

[apguirard (apguirard]

Dave Hurst writes:
> ... I'm concerned ....  many of the cohousing projects I've seen described
> involve [building new structures in the suburbs]
> ...  I'm wondering if anyone has any experience
> with taking over existing structures in the city and converting them
> for cohousing.  My thinking has been along the lines of rehab'ing an
> entire apartment block.

TRG cohousing considered this as an option.  We had some concerns that the
existing architecture of an apartment building was not amenable to cohousing
because most are designed in such a way that people can just go directly to
their units without seeing or speaking to anyone.  Apartment designers
never intended that people should sit outside their units, for instance,
and chat with people passing by.  That means that to adapt an apartment
building to cohousing, unless the corridors were already more spacious
than in any apartment I have seen, you would probably have to move a lot
of walls.