Item #25376 Pocket Neighborhoods. Sarah Susanka Ross Chapin, author, forward.

Pocket Neighborhoods.

Taunton Press, 03/2011. Creating Small-Scale Community in a Large-Scale World. Item #25376
ISBN: 9781600851070

From the Publisher;


Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small Scale Community in a Large Scale
World
introduces an antidote to faceless, placeless sprawl — small scale
neighborhoods where people can easily know one another, where empty nesters and
single householders with far-flung families can find friendship or a helping
hand nearby, and where children can have shirt-tail aunties and uncles just
beyond their front gate. The book describes inspiring pocket neighborhoods
through stories of the people who live there, as well as the progressive
planners, innovative architects, pioneering developers, craftspeople and
gardeners who helped create them.


Sarah Susanka, author of the best selling Not So Big House series,
wrote the Forward to the book, placing pocket neighborhoods within context of
the contemporary trends in housing and community. Ross Chapin begins the book by
outlining the shifts in the scale of community and the American Dream over
several generations, leading to super-sized houses in a sea of development, then
describes a solution to help restore healthy, livable communities.


The first section of the book looks at historic precedents of pocket
neighborhoods, from 15th century hofje almshouses in the Netherlands, to a 19th
century Methodists Camp Community on Martha’s Vineyard, to early 20th century
Garden City models and Southern California Cottage Courtyards. The second
section covers a wide range of contemporary pocket neighborhoods, including New
Urban communities, affordable housing, houseboat communities, eco-neighborhoods,
and Ross Chapin Architects’ own pocket neighborhood examples. The third section
focuses on ‘cohousing’ communities, from Danish origins in the 1960s, to
examples across America, Australia and New Zealand, including a chapter on
senior cohousing. The fourth section looks at retrofitting pocket neighborhoods
within existing communities.


Throughout the book are series of “Design Keys” that highlight the essential
principles of pocket neighborhood planning and design, and short stories about
“Pocket Neighborhood Pioneers” who blazed new trails. The book is filled with
rich photographs, drawings, illustrations and site plans, and a Resources
section at the end provides leads for the reader to explore the topic in further
detail.


About the Author;


Ross Chapin, AIA, is the principal of Ross Chapin Architects, located
on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle. He has focused on “sensibly sized” custom
residences, “pocket neighborhood” developments, and mixed-use projects since
1982. His partnerships with developers, city planners, and builders have created
innovative housing and neighborhood prototypes that have received significant
national attention and are shifting the way we think about our homes and
communities. His projects have won numerous design awards, including the 2005,
2007, and 2009 AIA Housing awards, and have been published in Architectural
Record, Builder magazine, The New York Times, Boston Globe, Fine Homebuilding,
Metropolitan Home, This Old House, Sunset,
and more than 25 books, including
Creating the Not So Big House, Home By Design, Patterns of Home, The Good
Green Home, The New Cottage Home,
and Blueprint Small. Ross lectures
on housing at conferences and universities throughout the country. Visit his
website at www.rosschapin.com.




224 pages, hardcover. Taunton Press (March, 2011)

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Price: $30.00