Cohousing-L Mailing List: Are kitchens in the front important and why?

[Joani Blank (joani]

Friends,

I'd always heard that it is important to get that kitchen right up front 
facing on the common courtyard or pedestrian street. And the rationale was 
so that people hanging walking by could readily greet those just inside the 
kitchen window, and vice versa. After all, many of us pretty much live in 
our kitchens,

What I didn't think about earlier was the issue about the desire for 
privacy for those inside especially at dusk and later in the evening when 
it is easy for neighbors to see in as they walk by.  Where I live, we tried 
to get the kitchens up front, but it wasn't feasible in a number of our 
units, so in those units, the kitchen is in the middle or closer to the 
back of the unit.  I decided to walk down our walkway in the evening last 
week, and observe which units had shades up or blinds at least partially 
opened and which units were all closed up.  Then I looked again the in the 
morning.

What I saw was remarkably consistent. In every case where the kitchen is in 
front the windows are almost always uncovered day and night .   In the 
cases where the kitchen is farther back the front windows (and glass doors) 
are always kept closed. And I mean always.   Where there is a kitchen and a 
dining or sitting room window on either side of the front door, typically 
the shades are drawn on the dining/living side and partially or completely 
open on the kitchen side.

I'm guessing that the reason for this is that in the daytime when people 
are in the kitchen, they actively want to be able to see out and are fine 
about being seen as well. At night, however,  when they are more likely to 
be in the living room area and may be wanting a little distance from the 
outside world, although they can be seen by someone peering in,  someone 
outside will see them quite a bit back into the unit through an often 
darkened kitchen area.

All this is my way of saying that I personally think that having the 
kitchens of the private units in cohousing right in the front where that is 
feasible, supports neighborliness and is pretty important (low window sills 
over the kitchen sinks helps this a lot too, IMHO).

What about some others of you.  How important do you think it is to design 
our homes in cohousing with the kitchens up front? And if it is important 
to you, why is that?

Joani
Swan's Market Cohousing, Oakland, CA
p.s. Didya' see the lengthy profile of  me in the SF Chronicle on Feb. 14. 
Of course not. Many/most of you live very far away from the bay area.. You 
an check it out online at 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-in/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/02/14/WB212311.DTL. 



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