CoHousing Planting Elevation

This section cuts through one of the islands within the wetland/pond. I wanted the islands to be heavily vegetated to not only hold onto the soil, but also function as a diverse habitat for wildlife. I wanted to use a range of textures and colors for each of the seasons, providing interest year round.

Cohousing Sections

This section features the housing clusters. Small fenced in courtyards are part of the larger cluster courtyard. This allows the residents to have some private space that is their own right next to the larger community courtyard. The simple iron fence is open and airy to not make the courtyards feel clustered, but it gives each home a little privacy and exclusion for smaller gatherings and storage.

This section cuts through the common green and showcases how the wetland/pond interacts with the site.

CoHousing Enlarged Plan

This plan is my Enlarged portion of the site. I chose an area that featured both housing and public open space. The wetland/ pond area features islands which help to slow down water, allowing for better treatment and management. The edge of the wetland features a slate border. I wanted to use this idea because I wanted to bring a more modern twist to the area. This also brings some heirarchy to the other wetland that is elsewhere on site. I placed a more formal public plaza on the edge of the lake to house the pizza oven and provide a place for larger gatherings. That site as well as the housing courtyard features a checkered pattern of stone and grass pavers that are ten foot squares. The large scale squares bring another modern twist as well as allowing for more permeability with the grass. I placed deciduous trees amongst the housing units to provide shade in the summer, as well as sunlight into the homes in the winter.

CoHousing Master Plan

I chose this plan because I am restoring much more of the land back to woodland. This property sits at the bottom of a drainage basin and I want to use as little of the property as possible for development. The rest of the site lends itself to restoration and educational opportunities along those same lines. I have clustered housing together to allow for a heirarchy of public spaces. The Common houses and classrooms are right at the entrance for easy access., and to keep uneeded traffic off the majority of the site.

CoHousing Conceptual Plans

This is my first conceptual plan for the Aiken Village project. I took the functional plan a step forward and placed all of the housing along the street, but the houses facing the Common Green. The parking stalls are broken up with plantings in between each set of stalls. Each stream is daylighted and wetlands are introduced to manage and treat the stormwater. The greenhouses are placed next to the community gardens, along with a classroom and a couples houses to keep watch over the area.

This is my second conceptual plan for the Aiken Village Project. The housing is clustered together to help to create a heirarchy of public and private space. Each cluster of homes create a common courtyard for its residents that in turn open up to the common green in the center of the site. The community garden is shifted to the south end of the site, next to the Common Houses and Classrooms. Almost half of the site can be restored to forest. Large wetlands serve to help manage and treat stormwater.

CoHousing Functional Plans

This is my first functional plan. With this idea, I wanted to keep the same idea with the circular drive, but try it in a new and more ecological way. I used the two separate Common Houses that as anchors for the design, focal points for the ends of the Common green. I placed the Community Gardens along the slope on the northwest corner of the site. I daylighted the pipe that runs through the site to better treat and manage the sotrmwater, as the site sits at the bottom of the watershed for the area, including much of the Cotton District. 

This is my second functional plan for the Aiken Village CoHousing project. With this plan, I wanted to conserve as much of the site as possible. I decided to keep all of the housing along the east side of the property and just have a dead end road to give access to the residents.

Spend a Day in my CoHousing Community

For the second project in Studio 3 for the MLA program, before we started any design work, we were asked to write a paper on what it would be like to live the day in the life of one of the residents that would be living in our CoHousing Community. I took the approach of a journal entry for a MSU student living in my community. I think this helped me when I was trying to figure out some of the character I wanted to incorporate into my design. The paper is below:

            I start my day as any other day of the semester, waking up way too early for class. Seven in the morning and my alarm is going off, can’t wait for another long day on campus. Well, at least I was lucky enough to get one of the apartment dorms on campus this year. It is pretty nice to live so close to campus, and be able to walk to class or take the bus. It saves me a ton of money of gas each month that I can spend on… soda. I get up and make myself some breakfast. I love the fresh fruit from the gardens outside to put in my cereal, community gardens part of college living, who knew?

            I pack up the stuff I need for class and head out the door to a down pouring of rain. I run over to the bus stop to wait for the shuttle, at least I don’t have to get soaked walking to class from here.

            The rain has let up to just a soft, quiet, steady shower by the time class is over so I decide to take the rain route, as I like to call it, home from class. I walk down University Drive, into the heart of the cotton district. I turn the corner and head down the street past Tabs and shuffle past Jean Café to avoid an hour long conversation by the crazy owner. I reach the “headwaters” of the rain route to my house. I sneak through the woods and end up on Prospect Place. Walking along the one way street I follow the rainwater closer and closer home as it runs down the boulevard. I reach Collegeview Street and the water momentarily disappears under the street. I cross the street and head east, almost home. All of a sudden, the water appears again on my left. Meandering along the street, the water finally reaches my neighborhood with me right behind it.

            My house is on the far east side of the site so as that water disappears into the buffer and treatment facility, I head back to my house. The rain has stopped by now and everything is shiny clean as the sun comes back out. I head back to my apartment and drop everything off and change clothes. I head back outside to take care of some gardening in my plot. I get overzealous and pull some weeds in a neighbors plot before taking a walk around the neighborhood. I stop in the common house to see what is going on and chat with some friends. I head out the doors and hit one of the walking trails. This route takes me past the stream and pond that runs through the neighborhood. With all of the fresh rain, it gurgling sounds of moving water actually make it quite relaxing. I head back to my room and get cleaned up. I grab my homework and head back to the common house. I sit down and work on some homework before dinner. Tonight some friends and I are making dinner. We invited some neighbors to come and eat so we are cooking for a crowd.

            Dinner is cooked, eaten, and cleaned up and homework is done. Time for bed! See you in the morning to do it all over again. J