Green Building: Going…Going…Green!

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IV. 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.

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. 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 may change the design of the space over time without the approval of the Homeowners Association.

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

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