This was a terrific start to our Common House vision and planning.
Some of our inspiration came from Cobb Hill Cohousing (below top) and the many common houses designed by Kraus-Fitch (kitchen on front page and 2 bottom photos).
For details of our May 4 planning day, scroll down.
First shot at Common House Visioning Sunday, May 4, 2014
Our day of visioning was great. Not everyone could come, but this was only the first of many efforts to come and gather ideas. We explored many ideas and realized that the common house spaces can serve multi purposes. Some of the more exciting ideas for common space won’t cost much, like a fire pit on the knoll, a ping-pong table, a campsite, and a sewing/textile room.
The two needs that were unanimous were:
- Commercial kitchen … for shared meals as well as canning, cooking classes, cooking together, making value added products to sell, catering, soaps, tinctures and other non-food items, etc.
- Multi-function room … dining area that can be easily cleared for events, classes, workshops, educational programs, house concerts, swing & square dances, etc.
We put dots on our top choices. Here are the results:
INDOOR SPACES/FUNCTIONS
12 dots. Guest rooms, rental apartments (as transition to moving here & rental revenue)
10 dots. Day care/after school/home school space
8 dots. Lounge/ reference library (books, DVDs, & sharing other resources)/ smaller meeting room
7 dots. Studio space (art, music, projects)
5 dots. Rec room/play space (exercise, yoga classes, etc.)
4 dots. Sewing/textile/project room (cutting table, storage space)
3 dots. Office space (shared)
OUTDOOR/SEMI-OUTDOOR SPACES/FUNCTIONS
Energy independent building with stand alone power
12 dots. Space for workshops … semi-heated barn or shed (music concerts, art projects, etc.)
12 dots. Workshop and tool storage (wood shop)
4 dots. Shared storage space … (bikes, camping equip, root cellar, bulk food storage, etc.)
3 dots. Campsite area (eventually compost toilets and platforms)
3 dots. Special fire circle area
COBB HILL MODEL
Cobb Hill Cohousing was discussed as an inspiration. They have a long pole barn with separate storage and work spaces. They also have individual and group ventures such as award winning cheese making (owned by 3 members); frozen yogurt business; dairy cows (owned by resident farmer and milk sold to the cheese makers); beef cows; honey; maple syrup; vegie and dairy CSA; mushrooms; chickens; Icelandic horses; sustainability programs and more.
MUSIC and ART
Musicians and artists are coming! There was discussion about house concerts, soundproof studio space to play music and large space to get messy and create art. Open mike, dances, jams, book discussions, and films were suggested too.
PLAY SPACE
Lots of interest in play space, daycare, after school program, teen rec area, game space, exercise and movie room, spontaneous get togethers, and lounge.
GATHERING SPACE
PV Cohousing says that having the mailroom in the Common House has been the best unexpected social gathering space. Interactions range from a quick hello to catching up over a cup of coffee.
The next step is to break up into committees to focus on vision areas. Here is an initial list of committees. Think about which ones you want to work on. There is room for everyone to participate, Katywil residents as well as prospective Katywilians.
Initial committees
• Design and use planning
• Finance
• Commercial kitchen
• Working with Town
This was a terrific start to our Common House vision and planning. It’s an exciting project, and as they say, Together we can!