团购房子，有性趣的报名研究研究

olddream · 发表于 2011-11-29 08:30

Stephanie Burton grew up on a farm where neighbours were an important part of life.
When she moved to Edmonton, that changed. She and her husband, Matthew Lucas, have lived for years in a condo and still don't know anyone in the building.
So they were excited when they heard about a new model of housing with built-in neighbours, shared play space for kids and weekly shared meals. It's call co-housing, and it's brand new to Edmonton.
"It's like a small neighbourhood gathered together," says Burton, who has two kids. "We'll have a courtyard, playroom and other kids to play with - besides all that, you still have your own place."
Salim Esmail, a retired doctor, and his wife, Shamin, were looking to downsize now that their children are grown up. But the idea of moving into a large, adult-only condo tower left them cold.
"We wanted a community feeling, and this was most attractive," Esmail said at a group meeting last week.
After they signed on, Glenwood Co-housing had seven families committed to building their own condo complex with large common space for community activities.
This winter, they will turn the sod on their $3.5-million, 10-unit complex in the west-end Glenwood community near 156th Street.
Co-housing came to Canada about a decade ago and is slowly gaining a small niche in the housing market. There are more than a dozen projects in British Columbia and a handful in Ontario and Quebec, and a couple of hundred in the U.S. now.
Co-housing started in Denmark in the 1960s, with the idea of building more sustainable, community-oriented housing. It a tougher sell in North America where people have a strong attachment to single-family homes and suburban privacy.
But Laura-Belle Robinson, a local designer with a special interest in family housing, says as Canadian cities get bigger, co-housing will have more appeal as a way to create community.
Unlike co-op housing, which is rental, co-housing is based on private ownership, much like traditional condominiums. But the key difference is shared space that everyone pays for, says Robinson.
Each condo unit might be smaller than the market would build.
But the idea is to build in lots of space for kids to play in a common rec room, courtyard or games room. A communal kitchen brings adults together, too.
"A lot of modern housing doesn't work well for families or community," says Robinson.
For instance, in most households, kids come home from school and sit alone in front of video games until their parents get home.
In co-housing, they can head to the common room and hang out, and there is always someone around to keep an eye out, or for company.
"This is a very natural way to live," says Robinson, who runs her own design business.
That's partly what attracted Janet James to co-housing.
A single mother with four kids, she wasn't happy in her home near West Edmonton Mall after a violent incident in a nearby park. She's looking for a safer, supportive place for her family.
"This way the kids will have uncles and aunts around to give them life lessons," says James, who runs cosmetic departments for a large drugstore chain in Edmonton.
Shamin Esmail, who runs a healthfood store, says she looks forward to that kind of "caring and sharing" between generations.
"Yes, we can watch the kids for a couple of hours, that's what keeps people going," says Esmail. If they need help, there's someone there for them.
Co-housing has its challenges. You have to be patient, since it takes three to four years to go from concept to building. There's a lot of group work, and that requires commitment, says Robinson.
Also, it's not cheaper than market housing, it's about the same cost, though there are benefits.
Buyers get to custom design their own units and overall there is builtin energy efficiency to keep heating bills lower.
Each owner must be pre-approved for a mortgage and the total helps define how much the group will spend. In this project, the units will cost around $300,000 and up, depending on size and custom design. The cost of the communal space is spread among the buyers.
So how do seven families come to agree on what to build? By consensus, says Robinson.
This group didn't have much trouble agreeing on the kind of building, she says; everyone wanted space for vegetable gardens, basketball for the kids, lots of communal bookshelves, two guests rooms (so no one has to have one in their unit) and a big common room.
During those discussions, the group really came together, says Robinson. "By the time we move in, we will all know each other."
Robinson works with an architect in Colorado who also lives in cohousing. He took their list of ideas and came up with a four-storey building with ground-floor suites that have direct outdoor access - great for kids.
The next step was getting the land rezoned and finding an Edmonton builder willing to try an unconventional project. That's where Richard Lutz came in. He does a wide range of housing, from homes in Sherwood Park to work camps in Kazakhstan. Co-housing eliminates the middle man, the developer, so the homeowners get more for their money, he says.
It's also less risky for the builder because construction doesn't start until most units are presold.
As more baby boomers downsize, Lutz says co-housing may become a more attractive option.
The group needs three more families to fill out the building, and Robinson says there's lots of interest.
Abdi Abubakar, who works for the city, moved from Somalia a decade ago. He's happy to take his five kids to the Glenwood project.
"Everyone in Edmonton is too busy and life is very isolating. We'll be sharing time with people instead of locking yourself in you house."
The west-end location works well for his kids, who go to French immersion at Laurier Heights school, he says.
Robinson's brother, Ralph, an accountant, says he's looking forward to making some Creole meals for the group when they're all settled in.
Robinson hopes the city will consider making room for co-housing on the City Centre Airport airport lands or The Quarters, east of downtown. It's a great model for families, she says, and therefore a great model for infill housing in mature neighbourhoods.
"It allows you create density in a non-threatening way, as opposed to building a tall box in an older neighbourhood," she says.
Their complex will be just five blocks from Glenwood elementary school, already threatened with clo-sures due to low enrolment. Maybe the arrival of new families with kids will help keep it open and keep the neighbourhood vital, says Robinson.
Co-housing is especially beneficial for children, she says.
While most kids live highly scheduled lives, driven from one activity to another, in co-housing there is always someone to play with at home. Also, you can bring the music teacher in for all the kids instead of everyone driving across the city, she says.
In her design business, Robinson spends a lot of time redesigning people's houses to better work for families.
"People have a need to belong and it doesn't just happen unless you have an environment that leads to belonging.
"Family and community can't be separated, so we have to start looking at housing at that level."

willl · 发表于 2011-11-29 10:42

见过图片最右边的站立女子，不知图片来源。

olddream · 发表于 2011-11-29 12:17

见过图片最右边的站立女子，不知图片来源。
/ X% w; C' Y0 j8 S# T! Uwilll 发表于 2011-11-29 10:42

these should be Edmontonian.
from Edmonton Jouranl

willl · 发表于 2011-11-29 14:03

我见过活的。

道可道 · 发表于 2011-11-29 18:39

有兴趣，但不一定有性趣。能便宜多少？

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