Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: (1) D.I.Y's Lot Size

[David Hungerford (dghungerford]

Harry's suggestions for how to design for community contain some 
reasonable ideas, but many run counter to my own experience.  Also, The 
proscriptive tone of the post bugs me.  The idea that it is not possible 
to have a community with flat roofs is absurd (I guess the entire Middle 
East and Mediterranean Coast is absent of "community"), Roofs over 
"verandas" are certainly important in rainy climates, but not in dry 
ones.  And so on.  Even Chrisopher Alexander, whose pedagogical "A 
Pattern Language" has so many strong pontifications about elements of 
good design, is humble enough to recognize that his suggestions should be 
part of an overall design PROCESS.

During what seemed like years of design process (well, it actually WAS 
years), we learned that starting with "design solutions" was a mistake. 
Instead, programming and consensing uses, needs, visions, etc. into a set 
of "design criteria" allowed us to work with different designs until we 
had solutions that worked FOR US in our particular situation. (I must 
acknowledge Chuck and Katie here for their direction during that 
process---that's us in the 2nd edition of the cohousing book moving 
wooden blocks around on a site plan).

Starting off with a proscriptive list like Harry produced can, IMHO, only 
get you in deep trouble.

David Hungerford
Muir Commons