Cohousing-L Mailing List: Question about participatory design

[Susie Marbury (marbury]

I am an architecture student at University of New Mexico.  This semester we
are working on a project, in conjunction with the City of Albuquerque, to
develop design guidelines for some affordable in-fill housing.  To do this
we will conduct some meetings with volunteers from the neighborhood and
potential buyers to learn what their needs and desires are.  This includes
evaluating trade-offs among various choices, both aesthetic and functional.
 We are currently designing the process we will use in conducting these
meetings.

I have been interested in cohousing for awhile and it seems that many
groups have used various processes to do the same thing for their
communities.  I'm looking for any help any of you can offer in researching
processes that have been used and how successful they were.  I'm reviewing
the information found on your web pages.  I'm particularly interested in
any 'games' that were developed to help people evaluate the trade-offs.  Is
it better to use 3-D models than 2-D graphics?  How specific versus
generalized should the components be?  Are there tried and true methods to
facilitate this process that are unique?

Thanks, in advance, for any help/direction you can offer.


Susie Marbury
241 Camino de San Francisco
Placitas, NM 87043
(505) 867-5720