37 HOUSE CLUSTER*™*the fundamental » of organization within she neigh DENTeIaRLE wEsoHnORGHOND (£4) — i the cluster of 2 Jozen houses. By earying che density and composition of diferent sho Help 10 generate ESIC mies hood (29), Houston vox (55), and dkowERs OF PURLIENESS (36) People will not feel comfortable in their houses unless a group of houses forms a cluster, with the public land be- tween them jointly owned by all the householders. When hoases ae acrenged om steets, and she streets owned by the town, there is no way in which the land immediately outside the houses can sect ess of families and individual living those houses, Te land will only gradually get shaped to meet fit they have dizect contrel over the land and lis repair “This pattern ie oied on the idea chat the cleter of land and homes immediately around one's own home is of special im- fentistion of ne ghl 1 source for gzadual i poreance. It hood land vse, and it ie the natsral focus of neighbor's incer= Hechert Gans, in The Levitiowners (New York Pantheon, 1967), has collected some powe Gans corveyed visting hablts on a appl ment. OF the 149 people he ser in sore pattern of eegubar visiting interesting Ending is the morpholog fu) evidence for this tender Block treet develop ith their neighbors. The of thie visiting pater, nade fo Consider the following diagram ane like it can lavost every Rowse in a tract, Theve isa house on either side, one toe intytvee pr ee of al the wigharkoodeting engaged ject is confued to thi ep the 19837 HOUSE CLUSTER Ona typical black each home it at the center of 5 O30 late And when asked “Whom do you visit most?" ga per cent nid the people they visir moet are immediate oor Phe besuty of this finding is its indication of the strength of the spatial cluster to draw people together into neighboe'y ens ibe cluster the homes on tact, The mot obeicu: and th tither side and arrow the seet—forms roughly and it there that most contact occws, And if we add to this shape the home immediately behind, although itis separated by private gardens and 4 fence, we con account for neatly all che visiting thee goes on in the Lexicon neighborhood. We conclude thet people continue to act according 10 the teighborkoed plan do their bet to destroy this unit and mate it anon, Gans! dasa underscare our intuitions: people sant to be part of 4 neighborly spatial cluster; contact between people sharing such 4 cluster is 2 wal function. And this need stands, even when people ae able to drive and se frends all over the city What aboct the size of the Custer? Whats the appropriate size? In Gans! investigations each home slands at the center of a clus of five oF six arher homes, But this i certain'y not a coal limit for 4 housing cluster since the Levittown Block fay= safining. In our experience, when the sting of the homes is attuned to the cluster pattern, the natura) fmt arise eazizely from the balance herween the informality and coherence ‘of the grosp, 199‘The clawers soem to work best if they have berwoen $ and 12 houses each. With one representative nom each family, this fe the of people can tale to ex6h other diceetly, face so face, and can therefore ad they hold in common, Wath Bor 10 howeholde, people can meer aver + bitehen cable, ex change news on the stieet and in the gardens, and genesaly, 1 stention, keep in touch with the whole of at can st round 2 common meeting table, make wise decisions sbovt th vwithoot mach 4 the group. Whea there are mare than 1a ar 42 hemes forming a lester, this balance is strined, We fevefore set an upper 1312 om the number of hovishalde that can be natursily draws into a closter, Of courte, she clusters might be less perhaps around 6 of 8 a 407 § homes con work perfectly we Now, anwming that 4 group of neighbors, oF a neighborheed fon, or a planner, wants to give some expresion to shis pattern, what ste the erica) icuee? est, the fn the ground, we imagine quite dramatic houses built around erty. In a new neighborhood, with houses bol othe side of commen Tandy and seth a core t the duster that gradually tapers offs the edges A duster of 2 hones In exiting neighborhoods of free-standing owes, the patter most be brought jnto play gradually by selaxing “zoning ordi= ances, and allowing people to gradually knit together cluster of the existing gré—tee comseox tasty (67) and Tint Fionicy (75). IU is ever posible ro implement the pattern sith37 House CLUSTER ow novses (38) and ranvsinie wits (39). In this case the cone guration of the cows, and the winge of the apartment building form the elas In all cates common land which ie shared by she cluster is an sential ingredient. It sete at a focus and physically kniw the group together. This common land ean be at small as a path or as (On the other hand, care mast be caken sot to make the cluvers to ght oF self-contained, so chat they exclade the ing and clawsrophobic. There needs to be some open endedaes and overlapping among clstes Overtapping cbuters in a Parbith lage Along with the shape of the lester, the seay in which ie is conned is critical, Hf the patter of wsanership nae tn ace th the physical properties of the eluiter, the pattern ‘will not Jake hold. Very simply, the cluster must be owned and mainnined by is constituent householés, The households mast be able themselves 35 a corporation, capable of owning all the common land chey skate. ‘There ae many examples of tiny cwvned housing corporations such as this, We know several places in our region where suck experiments are under way, and places where they have been established for many years. And we have heard, from visitors to the Center, of similar developments Sn varius pacts ofthe worl of ownesship where the deed to one cwvnesship in We advocate a 9 home corrce with it p cluster to which the carrie with it part ownese ham belongs: and ieship in the neighborhood made op of several clusters, Tm this way, every owner ie automatically 3 shareholder is several levels of poole land. And eich level, beginning with the homes ie their clsters a political unit with the poster co contsol the processes ‘of its om growsh snd repair, Under such a ajstem, the housing, whether in lowe or igh density neighborhoods, can gradually find $3 way toward an abiding expreaion of the cluster, And the clusters themselves ality of neighborhood life that, broken dows neighborhoods novs, we can only dinsy perceive will come ta support a sm oat ‘Phe uravowed scuet of man is that he wants to be confirmed in his being and Bs existence by his fellow men and thae he wishes then tomske it poste for hi to corm them an «no! merely s the fail, in the pariy sembly or in the publoe house, but 386 in Whe counse of asighborly encounters, pethaps when he or the other "ope out of the oor of hs house arto the window of his house 3d the greeting with whieh they grees each other will be accompanied by 4 glance of welawching, = glance in oshich eozioty, mist ard Foutine will have beet oveteome by a mutual spmpachy. the one ves the other to understand thas he affrae hi presenee, Tie fe the Indispensable minimein of hursanity. (Martin Buber, Gleanings, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969, B94.) Theretore Arrange houses to form very rough, but identifiable clusters of 8 to 12 households around some common land and paths. Arrange the clusters so that anyone can walk through them, without feeling like a trespasser.Use this pattern st is for low densities, up to sbour 15 howses pet acre; at higher densities, modity the cluster with the addi- given by Row novsis (38) of sousine wna, G39). Always provide common aad between the hose — couMaw Lan (67) and 4 shared commen workshop—nosr wowkittor (457). Arrange paths lesely—cincvsarion meaLass (98)-—and lay these pathe out ia sch 9 way that they create bosier pathe ard bacowaters, even within the clsterBLoREES af muntsewrss (38); beep pasking in tana memkise Lars (103), snd make the houses in the cluster sufethe howscholds shiek wi) live there —THr pasty (75), HOUSE Rom a aALL PAMUEY (76), 1 Fox n COUPLE (77), MOUSE FER OE RER.ON (78), YOUR ‘own nome (79) 205