Cohousing-L Mailing List: Workshop synopsis, part 1.

[Eric Hart (harte]

This is a synopsis of workshops held by the Riverside community during the
spring and summer of 1994.  The Riverside community is working on a site
design for their rural site 11 miles north of Menonomie, Wisconsin.  They
own a total of 250 acres but will only develop a tiny fraction of that. 
They are a cohousing/ecological community that wants to incorporate many
ecological design principles into their site design.  Thus over the last
spring and summer we had workshops on alternative/appropriate technologies
which they wanted to consider having in their community.  Eric Hart, the
planning consultant, compiled this information for future use and prepared
the synopsis. The architect for this project is Rick Peterson, who has
worked with appropriate and alternative technologies for 15 years. 
Neither Eric or Rick are members of the community. Most of the group lives
in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area currently and will relocate
to the site when their dwelling is complete. 
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                        SYNOPSIS OF WORKSHOPS 

Construction Techniques, April 9, 1994: 

        This workshop looked at three construction techniques:  earth
sheltering, super insulation, and prefabrication.  Earth sheltered houses
use the earth as insulation and are surrounded by earth on all sides
except the front or the front and roof.  This construction technique is an
energy intensive one that requires a large amount of effort in the
beginning.  There are ways to prevent water leakage and interior moisture
problems but there is very little room for mistakes or damage to key
elements in this design.  Financing is hard to get for this type of
construction.  Using a partially earthsheltered design for a house allows
for the beneficial aspects of the technique to be utilized while making it
easier to get financing and to maintain the structure.  The pay back for
this type of construction is 12 years. 
        Super insulation involves adding extra insulation to housing to
increase it's energy efficiency.  Most of an superinsulated house is R-40
with the roof having more insulation and the basement having less.  The
most important element of super insulated construction is the vapor
barrier.  This stops the water that condenses in the wall from reaching
interior framing and causing rot and water problems.  Generally blown in
insulation is used since it is the cheapest and most ecologically sound. 
The walls of the house need to be extra deep to allow for the extra
insulation.  Hay bales can be used in place of blown in insulation.  They
are cheaper and do not have the settling problems that blown in insulation
does.  Generally since super insulated houses are so tight they need some
sort of system to change interior air more frequently.  Mechanical devices
can be purchased for air exchange or more simple and cheaper devices can
be designed.  The pay back for super insulated houses is 5-6 years. 
        Prefabrication involves building certain parts of a building (wall
panels, etc.) away from the home site before the house is constructed. 
The prefabricated parts can then be put together in a fairly short period
of time to complete the house.  This method is an easy way to build your
own home and requires a space to build the prefabricated parts and a group
of people to help you construct the building parts and assemble them into
a house.  Symmetrical designs work best for this type of construction. 
Costs can be held down to $30 per square foot due to the amount of
volunteer labor involved.  

Site Infrastructure, May 7, 1994: 

        The first part of this workshop consisted of a presentation on
zoning.  Dunn County requires that the community file a Planned Unit
Development (PUD) plan for their development.  A PUD allows for most of
the things the community wants to do although there are still a few
elements that will need attention and negotiation with the county.  We
must begin construction within one year of approval of our plan and
complete it in a reasonable period of time.  A proposal was made to
develop a zoning code for the site that delineates the various ecological
areas and human uses of the land.  This code will be developed at a later
time.  A draft Internal Zoning Code was debated and it was agreed upon
that elements of it would be developed further.  We brainstormed on
potential site designs using a model and game pieces provided.  Three or
four potential designs emerged.