Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Designing gathering spaces

[Laura Fitch (lfitch]

Hi Nessa,

We have created a slide show about community site design that may interest
you.  I highly recommend a site design "workshop" as the best way to bring
intensive discussion and creativity to the issue.  Best to do it as soon as
possible.  When folks move into a construction site of dirt and mud there is
nothing they want to do more than plant trees and flowers!  You want to
enable and encourage that but it needs and underlying plan.

Best,

Laura Fitch, AIA, LEED BD+C
Kraus-Fitch Architects, Inc.
413-549-5799
lfitch [at] krausfitch.com



-----Original Message-----
From: Nessa Dertnig [mailto:nessadertnig [at] gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 4:51 PM
To: cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org
Subject: [C-L]_ Designing gathering spaces


Hello there,

I'm a member of Belfast Cohousing and Ecovillage in Maine, and we're a
couple weeks away from having our first members move in (yay!).  We're doing
the building over time, so some other units will be started this spring, and
we're hoping to have the last ones finished in about a year and
a half.   What this means is that some people will be living on the land
before the whole community is finished being built.

So my question has to do with designing community gathering spaces and
setting boundaries for yards.  We didn't put a set space for yards in any of
our legal documents, wanting to retain some flexibility around this, and nor
are the gathering spaces set on any maps -- the thinking was that once the
houses were built we'd figure this out.  So now the question is, do we try
to accomodate those folks who are moving in next month and over this summer
and fall by mapping yards and gathering spaces now, or does it make more
sense to wait until all the homes are done and we can get a better sense of
how the whole community space feels?

We have a divergence of opinion on this issue -- some people think that it's
unrealistic to expect people to wait up to a year and a half before they can
settle into the space around their houses because they have no designated
yards, and believe that space will just be claimed and used around houses
anyway, which will make it more difficult in the long run, if the claimed
space is really more appropriate for a community node or something else.
Other people believe that we can't effectively plan our outdoor spaces until
the community is completely built, and that the people moving in now are
lucky to be on the land first and can wait until the rest of us are moved in
before we plan these things.

Any input on the designing of nodes/gathering spaces and yards, including
when it's appropriate to do it, as well as how it's best done (few-hour long
workshop by all members? land use committee coming up with a preliminary
plan and opening it up to community comments and changes?
etc.?), would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much,
Nessa

Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage, where we're still looking for a few new
members to fill out our community!
mainecohousing.org
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