Design By Committee
It’s an idea that would send many multifamily builders running from the room, but the first generation of residents at a co-housing community gets a large say in what the property will eventually look like. They aren’t the only ones: As new residents enter the community, they too become involved in its management, maintenance, and direction.
As challenging as it sounds, Chuck Durrett, a principal of The CoHousing Co., is sold on the process. Done right, he says, the co-housing process not only begins the community-building early, but also results in a carefully considered environment that meets the specific needs of its residents.
“We start with the site plan to establish design criteria,” explains Durrett, who is also the co-author of Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves. “We talk about how many homes and parking spaces, what common areas, etc. The key is figuring out what the residents want to see happen between the buildings–talking, interaction, walking. We also discuss what we want to have in terms of common structures.”
The discussions are focused more keenly on lifestyle than architectural style. “The lion’s share of the decisions,” he says, “are about what the neighborhood will be like.”
Durrett, who has developed 37 cohousing projects, then takes this input and creates an initial set of designs for residents’ consideration. “We work really hard to manage the group dynamics to make sure they get what they want and make decisions go quickly so we can get the project done,” he says.
At the ElderSpirit Community in Abingdon, for example, the process worked like this, according to Peterson: During the first six months, potential residents met with the architect to determine the site plan and floor plans. A committee of three residents and the project director made decisions about construction. Meanwhile, other residents met to plan how they wanted to live with each other, and adopted policies around work, pets, standards of neatness, and other basic expectations of daily life.