Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: A cohousing metropolis

[Paul Milne (paulsm]

Joani

> Why not plan the whole community as a cohousing village with ten 30 unit
> neighborhood clusters and ten common houses.  I guess I have delusions of
> grandeur, now don't I?

No, not in the context of "New Town" planning that took place in the UK in
the past. You're talking about, not a metropolis, but a small town.

Ever read "The Timeless Way of Building", and "A Pattern Language" by
Christopher Alexander et al.? He writes of the patterns that we use,
consciously and unconsciously, to build at all scales, from a stool to a
garden to a neighborhood to a town to a region.

Scale up the cohousing principals to a town level and you've got rational
transport systems, and a common house/town hall, neighborhood shops as well
as central stores for other goods, local artisans, wider scale "factories",
local primary schools, wider scale secondary schools (doesn't really sound a
whole lot different from a typical small town in some ways -- some patterns
we use already will hold good in the cohousing town).

Ambitious, yes -- delusional? I hope not!


--
Paul Milne
Cohousing 2000
Edinburgh, Scotland