We had some highlights at our gathering on Sat that made Katywil shine even more than usual. Ravenna, self described cohousing kid (grew up in WA at Vashon Cohousing), eloquently painted a picture of her childhood in cohousing. Read more…
We had two committee meetings. Cyndee Fand, from Co-op Power gave an overview of Co-op Power at the Energy Committee. It was good to learn about all of the fascinating facets of Co-op Power, and if and how Katywil can connect with them.
Upstairs in the Design Review Committee, Bill Austin, of Austin Design, who designed the Katywil 2 and 3 bedroom homes spoke and had a chance to speak to folks who are planning to build their homes at Katywil. Peter Brooks, also an architect who will be moving to Katywil, is designing a home for his partner, Kaylee and himself. Peter presented a beautiful array of local farm houses, barns, and cupolas that inspired the designs for their home. We were treated to some preliminary designs of his lovely future home. Then we were taken to new heights on a journey of the importance of place, dwelling, and homesteading. Cassidy Fry and Liam Turkle have been working on these concepts and designs since August 2012. Cassidy lives in Miami and was not able to come, so Liam presented.
Individual houses reflect personal expression, but community spaces e.g. barn, common house, paths, play areas, is where the heart and soul of the community as a whole are felt and seen. This is where we want to focus our community attention. It was an inspiring presentation and we are hoping to put it on our website.
As always, everyone contributed to a wonderful potluck lunch. Enough to satisfy the whole range of vegans to omnivores. Since it was spring break, we had other student visitors. Besides Ravenna, from Barnard College, we had Julia, from the Jewish Theological Seminary at Columbia University, Rebecca, from UMass Amherst, and Karen, who just graduated from UMass Amherst and founder of the group Sustainable Jews.
