research-l Mailing List: Re: Welcoming new folks to our listserv!

[Mike Librik (mlibrik]

I'm in Austin, a city getting to be famously expensive to live in.  A 
few friends and I are looking at a way to consolidate resources, live 
close to the city and its culture, and support each other as we get 
older.  So we're looking at the legal, zoning, and architectural issues 
of living close community.

As a social unit, the challenges we face aren't so much that of 
co-housing, with its larger communities, diversity and decision making, 
but that of polyamory, since we're all involved with each other in some 
way.  We're taking a cue from Katherine Hepburn's observation that men 
and women shouldn't really live together, but would be better off living 
next door to each other. Architecturally this raises questions of 
arrangement of common space (valuable both for economy as well as our 
shared relationships) and private space, along with private access (we 
all have relationships outside this cohousing group, both intimate and 
familial).

We've done some house-sitting together to test out living together, and 
the main thing lacking is our ability to define our private space and 
access, better than just separate bedrooms off a common hallway.  As it 
is, I know from my own extroverted experience that I'd largely haunt the 
common space. I've made a nuisance of myself this way in other shared 
housing situations where others got tired of seeing me in the kitchen.  
Another partner want the most private house and introverted private 
time. The third would rather sleep in a trailer that they can drag off 
on adventures given the whim.  We have varying degrees of experience in 
cooperative or shared living.  Overall it is less our interest in 
cohousing that drives us, besides the economic aspect, and more our 
interest in each other.

Both cohousing and polyamory share aspects of being modern, post-hippie 
rational re-thinking of boundaries in important relationships.  Having 
just seen the movie Coco, I've taken an interest in that Mexican 
architecture of semi-private dwellings off a central courtyard, with 
shared kitchen and workshop space.

On 12/22/2017 12:35 PM, Neil Planchon wrote:
> Hello everyone.
> Happy December and Holidays to you all….
>
> As is my custom, I am letting our current subscribers know that some new folks 
> have decided to joined us.
>
> They are Jed Horwitt, Lorenza Maluccelli, Jessica Santos, Margaret Critchlow, 
> Kristina Brown and Mike Librik.
>
> Welcome one and all!  We are delighted that you have decided to join us.  
> Please take a moment to introduce yourselves, tell us where you live, your 
> interests and what connects you to Cohousing and us. Thank you and we look 
> forward to hearing from you!
>
> Cordially,
> Neil
>
> CRN team. Communications
> http://www.cohousingresearchnetwork.org
>
> Founding resident of Swan's Market Cohousing (Oakland, CA) 
> http://www.swansway.com
> _________________________________________________________________
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--
Mike Librik
:^|