Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: great rooms and ommon house spaces

[Tree Bressen (tree]

Hi,

> For our great room/dining room, we are grappling with whether we should
> retrofit (or build new) for one large (1000sf+) room or utilize 3 existing,
> contiguous rooms/alcoves that could be used separately.  Is the size of your
> great room a good fit for your community?  How is it used and is that size
> dependent?  Do you wish it were smaller or larger?

I don't live in cohousing but i work a lot with cohousing groups and have 
spent time in many a common house.  As a traveling meeting facilitator, i'd 
like to put in a plug for having one room in your place that is large 
enough for nearly all the adults to sit in a big open circle, and all be 
able to see each other (without doubling up, and without furniture in the 
middle).  It seems like many architects don't think much about meetings, 
but it's one of the main uses of a great room, a basic community function 
like meals.

Cheers,

--Tree



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Tree Bressen
1680 Walnut St.
Eugene, OR 97403
(541) 484-1156
tree [at] ic.org
http://www.treegroup.info