Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Vertical cohousing in the city

[Tim Behrend (t.behrend]

Phoenix Cohousing of Auckland, New Zealand, is playing with the idea of
retrofitting or rebuilding a commercial or industrial site in the city in
such a way that it will have a central atrium, two or three stories tall,
at the bottom of which would be our dining room. Other common spaces would
be distributed throughout the building rather than concentrated in one spot
as in a normal common house. Thus a music room in one spot, a quiet reading
room/library in another, workshops clustered together near the
under-building parking. Other small nooks (a few chairs beside bright
windows, perhaps a teapot nearby) would be scattered on differed levels. We
have also discussed the idea of having several teen rooms (bedrooms) for
our older children when they might want to have more autonomy than living
in our own apartments might allow. We have a site in mind, though it is far
from certain that it will be appropriate, or that we will end up acquiring
it. Our ideal, at least the ideal of some of our members, is quite urban.

Tim Behrend
Auckland, New Zealand