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Drivhuset Cohousing in Randers, DK. Designed by Niels Madsen
The linking of cohousing units with public passageways creates dynamic opportunities for interaction during an average day.
The Community Street acts an an outdoor room that provided the opportunity to socialize or just be in the presence of others while still maintaining a degree of privacy. While this is not a room in the Common House, the communities with a covered street exemplified that this pattern played a key role in the communitas of a community. The presence of the community is not only evident in the physical presence of its residents but the artifacts of human occupation - furniture, toys, lights. These daily household items spill over into the community street giving it life.
Please Note:
This series of blog posts is focused on explaining common design patterns in cohousing. Grace Kim, a founding principal and owner of Schemata Workshop, has identified patterns applicable to cohousing from "Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander and has added some of her own.
Grace's additional patterns pay particular attention to the Common House because its design requires special consideration. As the living room for the community, the Common House sets the initial impression for visitors about what cohousing is, what your community values might be, or the perceived benefits of living in community. Schemata Workshop has analyzed scores of common houses in Denmark and North America to discern what does and does not work. Following Alexander's concept of Pattern Language, Grace has thoroughly documented the necessary programmatic and design elements for a successful Common House.
To learn more about cohousing at Schemata, visit our cohousing page.
Adelan 2 Cohousing in Randers, DK. Designed by Peter Krogh
Interactions in cohousing public spaces inform the way residents, visitors, and the surrounding community relate, and the way the internal sense of community is developed.
Contrary to the gatekeepers, the remote location of those residing furthest from the Common House or entry point into the community seemed to encourage the creation of smaller territorial spaces for informal gathering. 3-4 households would often create a small, shared, semi-public space for them to socialize without having the frequency of traffic near the Common House. While it wasn’t the intent of these households to segregate themselves or exclude other members, their degree of publicness in the community seemed to instigate other measures for them to develop communitas without having to spend all their unstructured time away from their immediate vicinity of their home. These local centers are critical to the life of the community and are an extension of the public common space outside the Common House.
Please Note:
This series of blog posts is focused on explaining common design patterns in cohousing. Grace Kim, a founding principal and owner of Schemata Workshop, has identified patterns applicable to cohousing from "Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander and has added some of her own.
Grace's additional patterns pay particular attention to the Common House because its design requires special consideration. As the living room for the community, the Common House sets the initial impression for visitors about what cohousing is, what your community values might be, or the perceived benefits of living in community. Schemata Workshop has analyzed scores of common houses in Denmark and North America to discern what does and does not work. Following Alexander's concept of Pattern Language, Grace has thoroughly documented the necessary programmatic and design elements for a successful Common House.
To learn more about cohousing at Schemata, visit our cohousing page.
Adelan 1 Cohousing in Randers, DK. Designed by Peter Krogh
Different families living in cohousing often take on roles within the larger group that promote the resilience of the community as a whole.
A Degree of Publicness discusses the tendency to be more public towards the physical center of the community. In my observations, it appeared that those residing closest to the Common House acted as gatekeepers – informally monitoring activity in the community. At Ådalen 1, while all families had a small table and chairs in the covered street, the family that lived closest to the Common House served role of gatekeeper. The male head of household often sat at his table in the early morning and late evening to drink coffee, read the paper, and smoke his pipe. Often, other residents would come to sit with him or his wife to engage in a brief conversation before dinner.
Similarly at Drivhuset, the residents that occupied the unit closest to the public entry into the covered street served as informal gatekeepers, helping visitors find their way. Likewise, the units facing the common path at Andedammen were the “eyes” of for the community due to their proximity to the community entrance as well as the Common House.
Please Note:
This series of blog posts is focused on explaining common design patterns in cohousing. Grace Kim, a founding principal and owner of Schemata Workshop, has identified patterns applicable to cohousing from "Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander and has added some of her own.
Grace's additional patterns pay particular attention to the Common House because its design requires special consideration. As the living room for the community, the Common House sets the initial impression for visitors about what cohousing is, what your community values might be, or the perceived benefits of living in community. Schemata Workshop has analyzed scores of common houses in Denmark and North America to discern what does and does not work. Following Alexander's concept of Pattern Language, Grace has thoroughly documented the necessary programmatic and design elements for a successful Common House.
To learn more about cohousing at Schemata, visit our cohousing page.
