Those
who believe that New Urbanism (aka,
neotraditional design) has a role in shaping the
future will find the newsletter "New
Urban News" a good source of
information. Started by New Urbanism advocate
Robert Steuteville of Ithaca, NY, "New
Urban News" added Phil Langdon, author
of A Better Place to Live, a senior
editor some time ago. The 24 page +/- newsletter,
published ten times a year, presents useful text
and graphics on neotraditional design and New
Urbanism.
The
front hook story in the June issue is a timely review
of Cohousing. The Cohousing movement is made up
of groups of families (and a cadre of
specialized consultants) who take the need for
more functional human settlement patterns into
their own hands. Not all the projects called
“Cohousing” create great examples of
functional human settlement patterns but the
practitioners' hearts are in the right place.
Of
special interest here is the data in Langdon’s
story relating to project density. Cohousing
projects are places where people spend thousands
of hours deciding just how they want to live.
Frequently, cohousers go to great lengths to
create the very best environment in which to
raise their children. Cohousers then back up
their ideals by investing a lot of money to
build those places.
Langdon
points out that several cohousing projects are
found within New Urbanism “neighborhoods.” (See
End Note One.) His
data suggest that for this form of “well
considered” housing, the Alpha Dooryard scale
is between 12 and 26 dwelling units. (Ranging
from smallest to largest, Alpha components are
the Unit, Dooryard, Cluster, Neighborhood,
Village, Community and New Urban Region/Support
Region.)
The
density of the projects listed in the Langdon
article ranges from 23 to 45 persons per acre.
(Recall that, based on development planned and
built since World War II, the minimum density
for an Alpha, or Balanced, Community is 10
persons per acre at the community scale.)
Those
who claim that there is a rationale for
disaggregation of urban land uses need to
understand the impact of the Cohousing Dooryard
numbers on the density of larger components. For
instance, it is useful to plug these numbers
into the Fairfax example in “Antidotes,”
May 9, 2005. One finds these Cohousing numbers
mean there would be far more open space in
Fairfax County and far more citizens would be
living in dooryard and cluster scale
environments that meet their needs rather than
in places that primarily meet the criteria of
maximum profit to those who provide shelter
under the current distorted market structure.
It
goes without saying that at these densities
there would be more that enough room in Fairfax
County for all the workers holding the
Fuller/Florida “More, Better Jobs” outlined
in the “Antidotes” column.
One
final note on Cohousing: S/PI has followed with
interest the evolution of several Cohousing
projects. The Cohousing process (from learning
about the idea to looking for the right
compatriots, finding a suitable site and the
best design plus the actual construction) takes
up to a decade in many cases. By the time the
perfect place to raise a toddler comes into
being, the child is about to go to high school
and parents need to be focused on Alpha Village
scale issues, not on Alpha Dooryard ones.
Based
on this time frame, our observation is that if
the earnest participants in a Cohousing process
who spend thousands of hours working toward the
perfect Cohousing Dooryard instead spent one
quarter of that time and effort working with
their current dooryarders, the result would be
every bit as satisfying.
Even
the idea of a shared space (“common house”)
could be accommodated by evolving existing
contexts. The problem is that first citizens
have to know they would be better off living in
an Alpha Dooryard. Before that, they would have
to understand that such a thing as a Dooryard
exists, or that they already live in one (albeit
a Beta Dooryard). This is one of the tasks of
PROPERTY DYNAMICS.
--
June 20, 2005
End
Note
1.
Many New Urbanist projects called
“neighborhoods” correspond to what we refer
to as al "Alpha Cluser." The
cornerstone of an Alpha "Neighborhood"
is a “neighborhood school.” Most New
Urbanist projects are not large enough to
support a 1 or 2 throuh 5 or 6 “neighborhood
school.” They could support a Pre-K thru
1 or 2 Alpha Cluster scale school in some
cases.
|