Cohousing-L Mailing List: Anti-Social Buildings & Neighborhoods

[Harry Pasternak (Harry_Pasternak]

To continue the dialogue about design and its impact on social networking in
neighborhoods (creating community). A good example to illustrate the impact
can be seen in Sweden.  

At one point the Swedes were short of housing so they put up countless
numbers of hi-rise apartment buildings. Later problems started to show up:
 
- First of all, people started to move out of the apartment buildings. Some
apartment buildings were totally empty---no, the buildings were in good
physical shape with heating etc.

- As well, no one would lock up their bikes at the lockup areas near the main
entrance.

- Children were not playing outside in the common areas around the buildings.

- In fact, there was little activity outside in the common spaces around the
building---even the buildings that had people living in them looked as
deserted as the buildings that had no people.

Looks like those Swedes are pretty anti-social! ...Maybe. The Swedes brought
some folks in to see if they could change this situation---pretty embarassing
to have these emtpy apartment buildings all over Sweden---there are supposed
to be experts on social engineering, and all that.

The design solutions suggested by the design team were implemented.
After a short period of time:

- People were locking their bikes up at the lockups.

- Children were out playing in the common spaces in and around the buildings.

- Adults started spending time in and around the buildings with various
activities.

- People started to move back into some of the  empty apartment buildings.

Did this change happen because the apartment buildings were turned into
cohousing buildings?---No.
Did this change happen because they brought in social workers, play leaders
etc?....No.
Did this change happen because people started having pot luck dinners?...No.
Did this change happen because everyone got a shrink?... No.

It happened because the design changes that were made caused people of all
ages to feel more comfortable... safer, in these common public spaces.

Can you guess what the changes were? People are not anti-social Q.E.D. ....
building and neighborhood design can bring people together or keep them
apart.

Harry

- sent via an evaluation copy of BulkRate (unregistered).