Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: common houses in small communities

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Laura Fitch <lfitch [at] krausfitch.com>
is the author of the message below.
It was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>

Note that cohousing-L does not distribute attachments.  The spreadsheet
referred to below is at http://l.cohousing.org/chsfdata.xls

An html version of this from about a year ago is at:
http://l.cohousing.org/ch-chart.htm

--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

Deborah
Here is an excell spread sheet of many common houses.  I put this together
many years ago, and it only has two small communities, but it might be of
some help.

Any residents or architects, with data on your existing common houses, want
to add to this list?  Please send me data, and as you can see I will share
it with people in need.

Best, Laura


Laura Fitch, AIA, LEED
Kraus-Fitch Architects, Inc
110 Pulpit Hill Rd.
Amherst, MA  01002
413-549-5799
lfitch [at] krausfitch.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Deborah Holzel [mailto:tessadog [at] gwi.net]
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2006 1:27 PM
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: [C-L]_ common houses in small communities


We are in the process of developing a small community of 13-18 units in
midcoast Maine.  We are planning our common space and are wondering what
other small communities have found to be the optimal size of a common house
or common area.  Total square footage? Kitchen size?-- number of
refrigerators; what size stove, cupboard space, counter space, etc.  Mail
room?  General hang-out area? There are several unknowns at this point.  So
far we are older adults with no children, so we don't yet know if we'll need
play space.   Dining room and kitchen are the givens.  We are wary of
creating more common space than we need.  We would appreciate any
suggestions.  Thanks.