Energy and Environmental Building Association, 1999

V    MINI NEIGHBORHOODS

The primary community-planning element in HomeTown is the Mini-Neighborhood, Neighborhood Pocket, or Micro Neighborhood, whatever you prefer to call it.  HomeTown as a concept stands or falls on these Mini Neighborhoods. 

The Mini-Neighborhood is the most important place where people start to develop friendly relationships. They are really little clusters of CoHousing without the common house. 

We used the design elements of CoHousing extensively along with Alexander's patterns about clustering houses around a commonly owned or controlled courtyard.

The Mini-Neighborhood is the smallest and most intimate sphere of shared human activity. Each one has from 10 to 15 homes. This is small enough for a number of neighborly relationships to develop based on an interest in a commonly-owned common space, but also large enough so there is a critical mass of options and opportunities for daily neighborliness to maintain itself.  These homes share a landscaped green and central gathering place with seating--a patio or gazebo with benches.

Each Mini-Neighborhood has a symbolic gateway (a trellis, fencing, or some shrubs, etc.) that creates privacy, security, and a sense of common separateness.  Each home has a front porch or patio that is sized to be usable.

Today most homes have little 3  x 4  stoops that are only big enough to stand on while waiting for the owner to come to the front door. Most front porches today are merely visual nostalgia symbols of the past designed only to look neighborly, not actually to be neighborly. However, HomeTown's porches and patios are designed for real, every day living-to be lived on   They are generally 7' wide, so there is room for a table and plenty of chairs. They are elevated and set off from the common open space with railings, fences, or landscaping, so they feel private and secure--yet people sitting on them are visually connected to the common open space. Every home has a livable front porch or a front garden patio. 

In order to increase a sense of personal as well as shared ownership in the private open space;  the owners can change the design of the mini-neighborhood space over time without the approval of the Homeowners Association.

There are two types of Mini-Neighborhoods: Living Courts and Living Lanes.

 
VI  LIVING COURTS - A CHILD'S WORLD

A Living Court has 12 to 16 homes - just the right number of homes to provide the opportunity to develop several good friendships while recognizing that some folks want to keep pretty much to themselves.

The physical design of a Living Court can either promote or discourage interaction between people, resulting in either a lively or lifeless place. We provide a raised porch or small garden patio with at least two comfortable seating places in the front of each home overlooking the Living Court. This makes it easier for people to spontaneously meet and greet their neighbors.

The fact that there are no cars in the Living Court means that the Living Court can be designed to a human scale and a child's pace. A HomeTown Living Court is one of the few outdoor people places in the modern world that is not influenced by cars whatsoever. The children and residents live in the Living Court, the cars live out in the back. Residents, not cars, occupy the most valuable part of the site.

The homeowners (not the association) have direct control over the use of the Living Court and changes to it. In most condominium developments, the homeowners association completely controls everything. And the homeowners don't even have any control over the common land that's right in front of their own houses. People will not love and exercise special care and concern for land unless they directly control it. In HomeTown, the families who live in a Living Court directly control the rules and regulations, the uses, the installation of additional landscaping, etc. with respect to their Living Court. This gives the Living Court special importance to the families that live there. The opportunity to work together to create a special unique place creates a real camaraderie. It is very comforting to know that a small group of people you know and trust has direct control over the land in front of their houses. If a homeowner wants to add to the landscaping or plant flowers in front of his front garden patio or porch and if his neighbors agree to it, he can do it, and the homeowners association cannot prohibit it.

Continued on next page

<< Previous   3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11   Next >>