Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Community & Architecture

[Rob Sandelin (robsan]

One example of my point that architecture is not causal to community:

The Goodenough community, in Seattle WA.  They have more community, 
real honest caring and support of each other, than almost any community 
I know of.  They don't live together at all.  They spend more time 
together than most cohousers who live together, but their actual 
residences are scattered across Seattle and beyond.

They meet in a funky old house with your typical Seattle funky old 
house layout and have some smaller rooms for more intimate gatherings.  
No special architectural considerations at all.  Actually, they have 
communally dysfunctional architecture.  They thrive. Why?  Because they 
want to, and that is the key.  I could list dozens, as a matter of fact 
most intentional communities are not designed for community at all.  
Community happens whether people have to walk 1/2 a mile to the 
gathering place, when houses are remote and scattered, etc.  You get 
the point.

It is the intentionality of the people to create community which makes 
it happen.  The buildings don't matter. Granted, if you are designing 
from scratch you have some opportunities to make it easier, but the 
buildings don't matter.  If people are into making community happen, it 
will and nothing can stop it.  I would agree with several people at the 
conference in that we need to create other models for cohousing. 
Designing and building from scratch is too hard, and uses too much resources.

I guess I see it as a big mistake to believe that once you all live 
together in these well designed social environments that community is 
going to happen.  Because you have a view of the commonhouse from your 
window, or whatever that you will be a community. Sorry. It is much 
much deeper than that, and some people will never want to go that path. 
 I talked with people who told me that in all the time they were 
working on their project they never took the time to get to know 
anything more about the people in the group than their meeting style, 
and of course after move in, surprise surprise were disappointed in the 
level of community. I heard this from three groups and two others who 
were forming.  Made me worried that we are missing the point and will 
end up like the Sunlight community in Portland, a well designed social 
space with fragmented community and lots of disappointments.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood