Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: design question

[Unnat (Zen]

> Does anybody have experiences with offering "shells" enabling
individual
> households to locate walls & fittings as individually preferred? For
> example, I have seen designs where the purchaser has the choice to
have more
> bedrooms and a smaller lounge or the opposite.

At Pinakarri, our choices were constrained by our state funded budget
(for public rental housing).  A further constraint was our own desire to
have the commonhouse built as part of the project - we each volunteered
to reduce the budget for each of our houses by about 6-8% to fund the
commonhouse.  To enable this we agreed to standardise the design.
Within each of our standard rectangular shells was a basic internal
layout which we could modify to some degree.  Where the walls are
located doesn't seem to be such a cost issue unless they're weight
bearing or affect another expensive item.  Ask your architect about big
cost areas, eg consolidate wet areas and plumbing where possible.  Use
standard window sizes to begin with - you'll end up with several - then
modify according to your own priorities, eg we wanted (relatively
expensive) louvred windows in our high gabled ceilings to maximise air
flow.

BTW, someone recommended A Pattern Language - I do too.  It's a great
primer for getting your head around space and relationships and personal
priorities.  Although the book looks chunky, the contents come in
delicious bite-sized pieces.

Warmly
Robyn Williams
Pinakarri Community
Fremantle, Western Australia