Yes, very important point on the scale of sociability. Even more important in American culture, which prioritizes the individual and the nuclear family more than many others. Just has to be thought through more - much like Ross has done with cottage courts.
There are a great many examples of wonderful little courtyards & passageways in 6-20 unit Parisian apartment buildings. Paris has so many great public spaces that the private ones, including courtyards, tend to be small. Think several people having morning coffee & tending to their potted herbs scale intimate spaces.
Courtyard Urbanism has to include smaller scale development to work, I think. Think 8 rowhouses with a shared courtyard rather than a full city block 6 stories high. Love the “church in the courtyard” concept though!
I am looking forward to seeing a vertically separated pocket neighborhood. It feels weird, but I bet there's going to be a lot of innovation in this space.
Ruben's summer school was a transformative experience for me regarding actually thinking and synthesizing various urbanist ideas into practice with the intensive charrette our student groups conducted.
I would love a Courtyard Urbanist style charrette to be done with Alicia and her cadre and perhaps the amount of thinking going into one could counteract your scale of sociability problem with intentional design.
I wonder about another potential limitation for the use of courtyards - low income Americans might have limited free time to enjoy shared, public spaces. For instance, those working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Maybe something that community engagement and programming (e.g. through a church) could overcome by finding out what would be most interesting and attainable for residents.
Yes, very important point on the scale of sociability. Even more important in American culture, which prioritizes the individual and the nuclear family more than many others. Just has to be thought through more - much like Ross has done with cottage courts.
There are a great many examples of wonderful little courtyards & passageways in 6-20 unit Parisian apartment buildings. Paris has so many great public spaces that the private ones, including courtyards, tend to be small. Think several people having morning coffee & tending to their potted herbs scale intimate spaces.
Great point.
Courtyard Urbanism has to include smaller scale development to work, I think. Think 8 rowhouses with a shared courtyard rather than a full city block 6 stories high. Love the “church in the courtyard” concept though!
I am looking forward to seeing a vertically separated pocket neighborhood. It feels weird, but I bet there's going to be a lot of innovation in this space.
Ruben's summer school was a transformative experience for me regarding actually thinking and synthesizing various urbanist ideas into practice with the intensive charrette our student groups conducted.
I would love a Courtyard Urbanist style charrette to be done with Alicia and her cadre and perhaps the amount of thinking going into one could counteract your scale of sociability problem with intentional design.
Yeah, I keep trying to get my kids to let me send them to it.
I wonder about another potential limitation for the use of courtyards - low income Americans might have limited free time to enjoy shared, public spaces. For instance, those working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Maybe something that community engagement and programming (e.g. through a church) could overcome by finding out what would be most interesting and attainable for residents.