Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Building the Common House First

[Jillian Downey (jillian]

Hi Graham,

I didn't see much response to this, perhaps that's an indication of 
how few cohousing communities have been able to build their common 
houses first!

I am a member of Great Oak cohousing, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, 37 
households on adjacent land to Sunward cohousing. The site work began 
in Oct 2002, the first GO households starting moving in Aug 1, 2003, 
most moved in between Sept and Nov, a few more in Dec, and we still 
have two units to sell.

And, our common house is going to be finished the end of this week.

I can say for sure, that it has been hard on the group to not have 
that common space to gather in, especially during this cold time in 
Michigan where we don't socialize much outside. Its been an isolating 
time. Also hard for people to have given up some of the "perks" of 
their previous living situations - larger houses, more privacy  - 
without the immediate benefits that a common house offers to offset 
those changes - if people are a bit starry eyed at first, they hit 
ground harder, I think, when there is no common house for the first 6 
months of community life. We were lucky though in that we are next 
door to Sunward, and some of us have been able to participate in the 
Sunward meal plan and we have been able to hold one meeting a month 
in their common house.

We had a development company. Our houses were built modularly, all 
within a fairly short period of time. We were told that the common 
house had to be built last for two reasons - (1) logistically, that 
the common house was in the center and so the cranes and construction 
equipment needed that center space to get to all the houses being 
built, and  (2) that getting financing was too difficult (or perhaps 
too expensive) to do until many of the units had been purchased by 
our members and so the developers had enough cash flow.  We talked 
about renting a double-wide trailer as a substitute for a while, that 
might have been helpful but we never did. And thank goodness, we are 
having our common house opening celebration this Friday, whew.
take care,
-Jillian

--------------------------
Jillian Downey
Great Oak Cohousing
Ann Arbor Michigan USA
www.greatoakcohousing.org

> Hi folks
>
> Whilst I've been lurking here for years and only occasionally 
> contributing, I feel that's going to change.  Finally after 10 or 12 
> years of researching and writing about cohousing, and visiting many 
> of you in the process, I am finally involved in a development group 
> of my own.  And it's a great joy, I can tell you.  Cohousing has 
> been slow to establish in Australia (only three projects in 15 
> years).  We will be the forth.
>
> Our group is fortunate.  We are planning to develop a cohousing 
> project of about 20 households within an ecovillage of about 150 
> households.  The site is gorgeous, rural, but within easy reach of 
> cities and the beach.  So we are already well down the cohousing 
> development track before we start.  We have land.  But we also have 
> an unnaturally compressed timeline since we have to be ready as a 
> group to place deposits on a neighbourhood of blocks when the 
> ecovillage land hits the market in about May or June.  The 
> developers will throw us some slack, but not all that much.  They 
> are certainly supportive and keen to have us. 
> They were inspired by Village Homes in Davis and set out the house 
> lots along those lines, in hamlets with the house lots facing into a 
> green, pedestrian/cycling space ... very conducive to cohousing.
>
> We have had a public meeting which was followed last weekend by our 
> first group meeting of about 10 people.  We have a list of 
> interested others of about 30.  We're about to organise our own part 
> of the quite comprehensive Ecovillage Web site ( 
> http://www.theecocommunity.com.au/ )  in order to attract new 
> members and facilitate communication amongst ourselves via a forum 
> there.  So I think we're well organised and in good shape.  We have 
> agreed to meet weekly since we have so little time.  We are now 
> devoting some 2 or 3 weeks to visioning.  It may prove to take 
> longer.  Anyway, here is my question, probably the first of many.
>
> Have any groups attempted to build the common house first?  I know 
> there are some groups, Marsh Commons for example, that had an 
> existing building to utilise as a common house before building the 
> homes.  That's not our situation. And I know that most projects are 
> built in one hit by a single contractor.  However, ours is a lot 
> development model so we can build piecemeal.  I guess the question 
> is directed at those groups that also used a lot development model. 
>
> In thinking about and writing up my personal vision for the project, 
> this is what I envisaged.  That the common house be built first and 
> used as a 'home' for the community, but also as accommodation for 
> those then building their houses.  There is likely to be a lot of 
> self build, but it could also accommodate contractors and sub 
> contractors.  My rationale is partly practical and partly symbolic. 
> Because the site is rural, it will vastly reduce commuting to have 
> on-site accommodation.  But I'm also worried that if people begin by 
> building their homes the whole emphasis of the project might swing 
> away from community priorities toward private preoccupations.  The 
> common house may not be built for quite some time, years even.  For 
> me personally, that would be a big concern.  I'm in this for the 
> communalism, not to build my dream home. I want to build my dream 
> community instead, and I figure building the common house first 
> would be a great way to ensure that community activities and spirit 
> and bonding got happening up front ... fast and furious.
>
> Have there been any other groups consider this option or carry it 
> out?  If so, I'd love to hear how it went.
>
> Thanks
>
> Graham
>
> graham meltzer
> contemporary photography
> 15/27 ballow st, fortitude valley, qld 4006
> ph: 07 3257 4852      web: www.grahammeltzer.com
>
>
>
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Jillian Downey             jillian [at] ic.org              www.ic.org
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