Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re:Aesthetics and lot development

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

>Metaphorically, this approach to cluster design is akin to the sound of my
>modem connecting to its server rather than the music playing in the
>background.  It's America's national parks before Roosevelt, it's corporate
>governance under George Bush,
>
>..... it's laissez faire approach crossing aesthetic boundaries.
>
Dear Hans, 

I'm a little unclear about your references. If you're assuming that 
aesthetically RoseWind is akin to Bush governance, that seems rather 
extreme. If you've seen our "intentional neighborhood" and it has struck 
you as akin to modem beeping, well that's a matter of taste. But I 
suspect you haven't been here. When I look out my window I see fields of 
waving poppies in all directions, fascinating houses of many 
descriptions, winding pedestrian paths, and the outward evidence of a  
diversity of style which I find enriches our community. 

It doesn't even pretend to be "an approach to cluster design". It's not 
cluster design, and that's ok with us; in fact, it's what we preferred, 
and with 9 acres of pasture land for an original site, it was no problem 
to do mostly 5000 sq ft home sites, and still have four and a half acres 
of commons, with room for playing fields, community deer-fenced vegetable 
gardens, potato and rhubarb and squash beds outside the deer fence, a 
small young orchard, a children's play area, some interesting sculptural 
stuff, garden and equipment sheds, wild rose thickets, and more. 

Beautifully matching "villages" are wonderful, and some cohousings do in 
fact use that as a unifying factor. But Sharingwood and RoseWind and 
other places with a variety of housing make community "music" in their 
own way.  

And for some groups, without the capital to do a project all at once, lot 
development is a very useful alternate route: for us it's the only way 
our project could have happened, and it turned out great!

Off to cook a Lebanese dinner for a common-house crowd!
Best, Lynn Nadeau RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA
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