Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Oh, no! (Ceilings Div)

[Rob Sandelin (Floriferous]

Do you have a one-story dining room?  How well does it work?

Yes, I think the height of the Sharingwood ceiling is very nice, not too high, 
not too low (7 foot at the outside wall edge, 14 feet at the peak.

IF YOU COULD HAVE A TWO-STORY DINING ROOM, WITH STATE
OF THE ART ACOUSTICS, AT NO ADDITIONAL COST, WOULD YOU TAKE IT?

Absolutely not. Its not only acoustics, its visual space. Your living room at 
home does not have a 25 foot ceiling, nor should your commonhouse. Unless your 
group regularily gets together and dances now, it will not do so any more once 
you have a commonhouse. There is is myth that if only we had X, then I'd do Y. 
 This is a common thing around shops. Don't build hobby or recreational spaces 
for what people say that they would like to do, build it for what they 
actually do. So unless your group dances every weekend (which is possible) 
Then  you will be using the space a lot more for other, non-dancing 
gatherings. And even if you do dance a lot, even with loud, live music, you 
don't need a 25 foot ceiling. I have seen commonhouses with 28-34 foot 
ceilings. They feel like trainstations, not living rooms.

In my opinion, the best commonhouse spaces feel like living rooms, the worse 
feel like train stations. Living rooms encourage you to hang out, train 
stations encourage you to do your business and move on.

Rob Sandelin