Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: 180 degrees (360 degrees actually)

[James Kacki (jimkacki]

Re/ 360 degree plans with the car turnaround in the centre;
As a planner / architect, I find the aerial photos interesting, like a 
floral pattern on the landscape.  However, as a living environment, I 
can't imagine that it would be comfortable or uplifting.  The regularity 
 is similar to jailcell layouts where the guard in the middle can see 
everyone, all the time.  The focus of the environment is the car 
turnaround.  I can't imagine that to be a positive living experience. 
Most of the original cohousing developments were the reverse-the central 
focus being a parklike setting, a people-place with activities for 
daily, human-scale interaction.  Someone mentioned that these circular 
developments were often for weekend getaway garden-plots. For that 
'occasional-use' activity, it might generate a certain conviviality, 
with everyone jammed up against their neighbour, raking, etc. "Nice 
tomatoes, Hendrick".  Other than that, I would suggest those planning 
co-housing environments would do well to keep looking for other 
archetypes.  Just a personal observation.
James

Fred H Olson wrote:
> Luk Jonckheere <l.jonckheere [at] scarlet.be>
> is the author of the message below.
> It was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
> after putting picture on the web with link below.
> --------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I found this image of 180 degrees siteplan in Denmark in a German photo-book
> by Georg Gerster.
>
> [It's temporarily at  http://l.cohousing.org/bronbyvester.jpg  Fred ]
>
> These are weekend-houses in the village of Bronbyvester, rented for max 30
> years. In the summer they are occupied all the time, in winter they can only
> be occupied during the weekends.
>
> I didnt find any pictures on the internet.
>
> Here is a scanned image for limited use (there is probably copyright on it).
>
> Kind regards,
> Luk Jonckheere
> Belgium
>
>
>
>
> > Date: 15 Aug 2006 10:54:21 EDT
> > From: Michael.Whitman [at] VALLEY.NET (Michael Whitman)
> > Subject: [C-L]_ 180 degrees different, in Denmark
> > To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> > Message-ID: <17404057 [at] retriever.VALLEY.NET>
> > Content-Type: text/plain
> >
> > ask if anyone else has seen
> > the fascinating (and huge) book of aerial photographs "Earth From Above,"
>
> by
>
> > Yann Arthus-Bertrand. It is a stunning book of aerial shots from all over
>
> the
>
> > globe, which focuses largely on the eye-poppingly gorgeous designs --
>
> natural
>
> > and man-made -- that can be seen from the air.
> >
> > On-topic, there is a photo of housing developments in a Danish town (its
>
> name
>
> > escapes me) that shows a design 180 degrees from what Jessie describes.
>
> Shown
>
> > from above must be a dozen pie-like settlements in close proximity to each
> > other, each of which contains about two dozen houses arranged in a circle,
>
> with
>
> > pie-shaped plots that must measure about 15 degrees of arc. Judging by the
>
> trees
>
> > in the settlements, these must have been built 20 or 25 years ago.
> >
> > What's curious to note is that the auto access for each group of 24 houses
>
> is in
>
> > the CENTER: the access road runs to a small paved circle in the middle of
>
> the
>
> > layout, so cars are in the middle and the houses are at the perimeter!
> >
> >   michael whitman
>
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