Urban Community: Building Shared Housing in Run-Down Urban Areas

Enlarge Image Image Gallery "Pocket Neighborhoods" offers a glimpse into alternative living arrangements and co-housing communities that provide security, shelter, convenience, comfort and meaning. Photo Courtesy The Taunton Press

The following is an excerpt from Pocket Neighborhoods by Ross Chapin (Taunton, 2011). The excerpt is from Chapter 21: Urban Homesteads. 

Urban areas often have an abundance of marginal, obsolete properties. Left vacant, these can become targets of vandalism, drug deals, and other misadventures. On the positive side, they can also offer affordable opportunities for new residential communities near transit lines, employment, shops, and cultural activities. A single household might feel vulnerable in an urban environment like this, but living together in a pocket neighborhood of 10 to 30 households allows residents—including women, children, and seniors—to feel safe in an urban setting.

Their sense of security is strengthened by design patterns that foster social interaction and keep “watchful eyes” on the common areas.

Doyle Street Community 

The building occupied by the Doyle Street Community in Emeryville, California, was originally a deserted warehouse on a scant 1⁄3-acre site in an industrial section of town. It is now home to 12 households, who live in apartments surrounding a shared courtyard.

Architects Chuck Durrett and Katy McCamant took lead roles in this project, not only in organizing the effort, but also in actually living there. “When we first sought people interested in being part of this community,” remembers McCamant, “all we had to show was an empty warehouse in a ‘questionable’ neighborhood.” The area was struggling with drugs and violence and spotted with deteriorating older homes and small industrial buildings. “Nevertheless, the idea of an urban community attracted a mix of singles, families, and elders who helped us develop the design, champion the project through a tough planning approval process, and raise predevelopment funding.”

The individual units, ranging in size from 780 sq. ft. to 1,600 sq. ft., reflect the character and personality of the original building, with its brick walls, corrugated metal siding, level changes, and large, multipaned industrial windows. The upper apartments take advantage of the vaulted ceiling and loft space to put every cubic foot to use. Terrace and patio spaces outside the apartments invite neighbors together for impromptu meals, card games, and conversation. On the ground level, at the hinge of the L, is the Common House—including kitchen and dining space for shared meals, a children’s playroom, workshop, rec room, and laundry facilities.