Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Church Conversion Retrofit Cohousing Panel for National Conference in NC

[Kevin Wolf (kevinjwolf]

Phillip

I agree.  Some form of member driven design will happen.  Members of a
start up retrofit community with only a few shared yards will work together
to determine where the compost. chicken pens, play structure, ping pong
table, tool shed etc go. By taking down their fences and sharing stuff,
they only need one of each of those.

The neighbors will right off start figuring out where the new paths go,
probably by looking at the parts of the yard that get trampled down over
time.  My experience it will be a couple of years before they decide where
to make the permanent path and what to build them with. (It will probably
be one of the first big test of their consensus decision making process.)

Until this community gets the opportunity to co-design the repurposing of
an existing building, or if they have the money, building of it anew, the
only design work the members will do together is in the "landscaping"
category.  Or they might do some redesign of their own homes (eg. add
porches to the back of their house or by adding more windows to the common
yard  side of their home) but that won't likely involve community resources
or decision making.

Best

Kevin
N Street Cohousing member




On Wed, Nov 12, 2014 at 3:33 PM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> 
wrote:

>
> We’re probably now splitting hairs, but … whether it’s a vacant lot, a
> church, or an apartment building from the 1970s, very few properties in
> their come-as-they-are condition will be ready-to-wear cohousing.  Somebody
> has to design something.  My point is designing it together usually has
> advantages over shopping around for somebody else’s idea of what’s ready to
> wear.
>
> RPD
>
> > On Nov 12, 2014, at 2:29 PM, Elizabeth Magill <pastorlizm [at] gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Having "forged a social dynamic" as one of the developers of a community
> that was less than half full at the end of construction....
> >
> > And now creating new community that includes everyone...
> >
> > I think that "you must design" is highly over-rated. To be clear I loved
> doing it.
> >
> > But you can't do it with a huge group, and it creates a social dynamic
> that ends up feeling ownership of design decisions which were not all
> perfect. And its harder to be inclusive of everyone if one third of the
> folk always remember what we were "going to do back in the day".
> >
> > I'm not arguing against groups designing their own space, just against
> the idea that that is BEST.
> >
> > Its just different in my view.
> >
> > -Liz
> > (The Rev.) Elizabeth M. Magill
> > www.worcesterfellowship.org <http://www.worcesterfellowship.org/>
> > www.mosaic-commons.org <http://www.mosaic-commons.org/>
> > 508-450-0431
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Nov 12, 2014, at 1:47 PM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> 
> > wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> True in its way, but … As the founders cycle away (and they all will),
> and newcomers rotate in, what the newcomers are buying, at that point, is
> not the architectural vision, but rather an established social dynamic …
> which, as you correctly point out, they will soon start to influence (we
> hope).  But the shared experience of designing and developing a project
> forges a day one social dynamic that cannot be readily simulated by
> strangers moving in among strangers and saying “Hi, how do YOU think we
> should do cohousing?”
> >>
> >> RPD
> >>
> >> PS: I used to do residential design and construction, mostly for
> married couples, and either they decided that designing one’s own home was
> one of the great adventures of their lives, or they got divorced.
> >>
> >> Arizona weather can’t be beat.
> >>
> >>> On Nov 12, 2014, at 1:24 PM, Mary Ann Clark <drmaryann49 [at] mac.com>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Mary Ann here:
> >>> But isn't it true that everyone who joins the community after the
> founders has to live with someone else's vision of what the community will
> be like?
> >>>
> >>> Isn't also true that every new member changes the dynamics of the
> community, so even the vision of the founders isn't stable?
> >>>
> >>> Mary Ann, Manzanita Village where we're enjoying warm days and cool
> night -- sorry those of you in the mid-west and further east.
> >>
> >> _________________________________________________________________
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> >>
> >>
> >
>
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