What a cogent, wise and inspiring analysis. Having lived for several years in the University of Michigan co-ops, I have spent a lifetime longing for a similar set up for grown ups. Now retired and recently divorced, it seems so obvious.
the first house i moved into as a 19 yo was a four storey terrace house that had once been a “Coffee Palace” and was built in red brick Queen Anne style. there were a total of eight bedrooms upstairs which were the bigger rooms one 1st, 2nd, 3rd floors were freezing in winter but we each had one large bedroom (the biggest being approx 7 m x 7 m, 49 m² and smallest a half of that, plus everyone also got one small room on the corridors running of the main stair landing. in the coffee place days i guess these would have been very small bedrooms for service staff to live in and/or private rooms for “paying clients”.
some people used their small room as a study, one as a gym, others as a guest room, some storage. maxed out at ten residents in total including those stay/living in guest rooms. with three large rooms downstairs for communal use it was surprising how often you didn’t see anybody else for days on end if you mainly stayed in you own room(s).
one of the problems of the design figured above is no airlock between communal rooms and bedrooms. or the bathrooms for that matter bw kitchen and toilets! it’s going to get noisy (and sometimes smelly) plus there’s no privacy when you open your door. but yeah communal over micro for young people every time IMHO. i designed a couple of these types of communal living houses next to family apartment walkups as an architecture student for uni work. i think multilevel is best as it creates more gap between communal and private spaces, which i think is important once you go above three residents sharing facilities.
if you are going for sustainability, step one is get off fossil gas appliances for cooking, water and space heating. yes you’ll need a fatter mains supply of power, but no fossil gas service charges or escalating fuel costs. methane GHG has contributed 37% of historical global warming. it also makes many homes as much a cause of lung disease for children and older people as living with a smoker, due to both the combustion product gases and the frequent appliance leaks of gas. think about that! higher up front costs to go electric but over a decade or less pays its own way, and heat pumps continue to get more efficient (heat produce per unit of input energy) and lower priced.
I enjoyed this essay! You make a strong case for this as living situation that seems to have practical benefits for all involved.
What a cogent, wise and inspiring analysis. Having lived for several years in the University of Michigan co-ops, I have spent a lifetime longing for a similar set up for grown ups. Now retired and recently divorced, it seems so obvious.
Thank you Teri! I am sorry to hear about the separation 😔
the first house i moved into as a 19 yo was a four storey terrace house that had once been a “Coffee Palace” and was built in red brick Queen Anne style. there were a total of eight bedrooms upstairs which were the bigger rooms one 1st, 2nd, 3rd floors were freezing in winter but we each had one large bedroom (the biggest being approx 7 m x 7 m, 49 m² and smallest a half of that, plus everyone also got one small room on the corridors running of the main stair landing. in the coffee place days i guess these would have been very small bedrooms for service staff to live in and/or private rooms for “paying clients”.
some people used their small room as a study, one as a gym, others as a guest room, some storage. maxed out at ten residents in total including those stay/living in guest rooms. with three large rooms downstairs for communal use it was surprising how often you didn’t see anybody else for days on end if you mainly stayed in you own room(s).
one of the problems of the design figured above is no airlock between communal rooms and bedrooms. or the bathrooms for that matter bw kitchen and toilets! it’s going to get noisy (and sometimes smelly) plus there’s no privacy when you open your door. but yeah communal over micro for young people every time IMHO. i designed a couple of these types of communal living houses next to family apartment walkups as an architecture student for uni work. i think multilevel is best as it creates more gap between communal and private spaces, which i think is important once you go above three residents sharing facilities.
if you are going for sustainability, step one is get off fossil gas appliances for cooking, water and space heating. yes you’ll need a fatter mains supply of power, but no fossil gas service charges or escalating fuel costs. methane GHG has contributed 37% of historical global warming. it also makes many homes as much a cause of lung disease for children and older people as living with a smoker, due to both the combustion product gases and the frequent appliance leaks of gas. think about that! higher up front costs to go electric but over a decade or less pays its own way, and heat pumps continue to get more efficient (heat produce per unit of input energy) and lower priced.