RE: Front Porches & Community Building | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Rob Sandelin (robsan![]() |
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Date: Mon, 31 Jul 95 11:28:14 PDT |
Front porches, gathering nodes, sidewalks and front gardens, sight lines and other physical elements and principals seems already well known to most the cohousing architects at this point. (granted architects doing cohousing are a select few at this point) There are endless refinements to these of course, and each application shows new insights worthy of passing along. One thing which I will add to this is that front porches and such things in of themselves have little value as social places if you have nothing in common to talk about and have no social inclination. In a community you have a selected population of people who are socially inclined. I had a conversation with a fellow traveler who pointed out that where he lives in suburbia, he has found that none of his neighbors have any interest to him. They do not share much in common, have different values, etc. and so, even though his particular house is oriented to the pathways such to encourage conversations, since there is little to talk about, and people being generally distrustful of folks who have different values than their own, little social interaction occurs. He has found his neighbors to be a generally anti-social bunch. They don't have parties, they don't seem to get together with people other than perhaps once a week at church. In contrast, he, being a social person, has many parties and get togethers at his house, and at others. I think one of the prime forces behind intentional communities including cohousing is that people share some level of cooperative values which then gives them a reference point to start relationships. Community is a bunch of people who want relationships with other people. If everyone around you is not attractive in some level that you WANT to have a relationship with, then you tend to withdrawal. The porch never gets used, the fences go up. So now the question is raised, what makes people anti-social? Is it simply the lack of designed socializing spaces? I doubt it. I mean look at yourself (me included) this very minute. You are staring at a video terminal by yourself. Is this the future? Will social behaviors be selected against and success measured in terms of how well you manage the machine? Currently economic success is being equated to the machine I am typing on. Look at all the hoopla over Billg and his billions. I am free wheeling a thesis here that the American consumer society is geared to anti-social behavior and its success is dependent upon anti-social behavior. Our economy is dependent upon people working for others so they can buy sustenance, knickknacks and services. Cooperative social behaviors, on a large scale, means much less buying of personal goods and services, and less need to work for others. I get a lot of my food right from the distributor via a cooperative network, and so some grocery store is not getting my business. Suppose lots and lots of people did that. The ramifications are....Paradymn shifting! Rob Sandelin
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Front Porches & Community Building Harry Pasternak, July 31 1995
- RE: Front Porches & Community Building Rob Sandelin, July 31 1995
- Re: Re: Front Porches & Community Building Harry Pasternak, August 1 1995
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