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Common Hall
Life Enriching Programs: As well as yoga, dance, and art classes, the Common Hall will be home to various multigenerational whole life learning and fitness programs such as 7 Habits 4 Teens™, and Parenting with Positive Discipline™. We will be sharing and developing new programs and training activities online in an "open source" design process. Providing fun, lifelong, multi-generational programs and activities for the Trillium Creek neighborhood, and in some instances, the surrounding community will increase individual well being and community connections and decrease the need to drive elsewhere to get many of these needs met. Roger and I are excited to be exploring a new idea that meets our needs to discover ways that people can live well, playfully, and responsibly with each other, and it matches our values for sustainability and integrity. Our thinking evolved when we were limited to 8 lots instead of 10, making costs per lot more expensive. Using one whole lot for a common building would have made costs even more so. Roger and I need to divide development costs among lot owners, and we didn't want Trillium Creek to be affordable only to the very wealthy. We're not especially wealthy ourselves, and we're creating Trillium Creek not as a business but so we can have a wonderful place to live, have great neighbors, and live more sustainably and joyfully. So here's the idea: What if we were to disperse the "common house" among the neighborhood? Roger and I decided that we would build our small-as-is-practical home. Then, rather than using an entire building lot for a common hall, we'll attach a spacious learning space/dance room as a wing. We'll provide an exterior entrance, build in a bathroom and kitchen to share, and make it accoustically isolated. It will be heated separately, so when not in use we won't be wasting heat. We'll design rules/boundaries about timing, clean-up and respectful use, figure out a user contribution for utility costs, and then we'll share. Neighbor use will be freely given but not entitled; our friends and neighbors can use it as long as our boundaries are respected. Boundaries can evolve as we learn what our needs are. We make a deal ahead of time: no hard feelings if boundaries need to change. It's freedom, responsibility and sharing, all coming together in a new community structure. We continued working with the idea. Maybe one of our neighbors who loves having a really well-appointed shop will want to do something along the same lines....Maybe someone else will like to have a particularly special kitchen....Someone else might have a crafts room, or a kiln and potter's wheel. People might invest in what they love, share, and get support from the rest of the community. Participation will be entirely voluntary, and each household that chooses to participate participates conditionally, around rules and boundaries that they choose. Had we built a separate common house, we all would have invested in it. In this way, we invest individually in something we particularly enjoy, have the benefit of it connected to our own home, and we contribute to the overall community. What do you think? Is it possible that this is a model that already established neighborhoods might adapt for themselves? If you have thoughts to contribute to this concept, please get in touch through the "Contact Us" link. |