Reef Commons: what if we put all the common spaces in Front

The Reef
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At yesterday’s long plenary, I floated with some people a new idea.

In the current version of the sketches, we have a 1-bedroom unit of 66 m2 in the front building, next to the multi-purpose room. We also have a “Reef zone” with a living room and a guest room in Back, also of 66 m2.

So here’s my idea: what would it be like to swap the two? The advantage would be that the entire ground floor of Front would now be a common area, with a 4 meters ceiling. We could play with divisions, making the space more public as we go from the SW to the NW corner, from the guest suite through a living room accessible to Reeflings and guests of the guest room, then a kitchen, then the multi-purpose room. The space would become more elastic.

And as for light… with double exposure and 4 meter ceilings I am not really worried. We could make large, imposing, even floor-to-ceiling windows facing the garden. It would become a very spectacular space, our Town Square where everybody goes through, either because of some workshop business or to sit in a corner of the common living room, or to prepare the next event open to the neighborhood.

How do you feel about this? Worth taking it to the architects?

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I would be happy to explore this option with the architects, as long as we can keep our common living room ‘cosy’.

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I think the argument of keeping all common spaces together is a strong one.

Another advantage I see is that it’s so central: everybody who comes home will see whether there is someone in the Reef zone, which will make it more likely that we’ll see each other there more often.

I have a couple of concerns though:

  • Sound-proofing: even if both spaces are next to each other, it’s important to me that the Reef zone can be quiet while there is a noisy event in the multi-purpose room (and vice versa).

  • Safety: it’s important to me that we can leave valuables in the Reef zone without too much stress.

  • Sunlight: even in June, at 5 pm (i.e. after work) there is no more sunlight in that bit of the garden. So that will mean shuffling chairs and drinks up and down every time we organise an apéro, which is of course not the end of the world.

Taking everything together I think I’m leaning towards having everything together in the front building, but I may also just stand aside and leave the wisdom and decision to those who feel strongly about this.

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Two concerns I would add:
-If the Reef Zone, currently projected in Idefix, becomes a private appartment then the garden just behind this unit (ca 75m2) is not accessible anymore, see also second video from the presentation starting from minute 04.
-With all major commons in Obelix, the communal life will be more centred and less spread across the area ( which again also has its pros).

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We had this discussion before the programme we sent to them that resulted in this version. If I remember correctly, we told them that we weren’t sure if we wanted the common spaces in one or two areas, and asked them to advise us on what was possible and/or practical. And they came back with the current split approach.

As the first version had all of the bottom floor as common space, we know that it is in fact possible, so we don’t need to ask the architects this. As both versions seem to be possible, we just have to decide which one we actually want. There are some concerns with regard to opting for the all-in-one option, but none of them seem insurmountable. As Richard says, the garden at the back would all become private space, which would perhaps strengthen the argument for that building to move closer to the wall and increase the communal garden space on the other side.

So how do we decide between the two options? If Alberto is the only one with a strong opinion on this, then a proposal to have one large common space would be consented to fairly easily and it becomes part of the increasingly decided elements of the instructions we give to the architects. I personally don’t mind either way (one common space or two). But if any @reeflings out there are attached to them being split, then this thread would be the place to start making your case…

:slight_smile:

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I have no problem with the ideas and remarks launched (and hardly read)and totally agree we should have this discussion

  • but I would like to remind we have limited discussion time together, we have limited amount of energy if we want to reach our deadline by end of October.
  • So I invite us to constantly question the priority of things: discussion to have before the end of October or can it wait till after end of october?
  • In my vision, keeping both destinations, keeping Both destinations the same size, it is not something we need to discuss now ( but maybe to be checked with the architects to be absolutely sur), meaning: i don’t think the commune cares where we put our reef only zone: in the front or back building
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I was very uncertain initially and more leaning overall towards the all-in-Obelix side. Got quite excited with the Idefix option though. But obviously can still go either direction still.
Although re light, I guess we can move our apero out to the sun, but then we can’t seat inside in the sun behind the window when it’s too cold to be outside for a long time…

I agree with else that we don’t necessarily need to make a choice now, but we should indeed ask the architects as they might not configure the space exactly the same in idefix if it’s for an apartment (shape of the space?).

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Just for my clarification: does “affectation” mean that the commune wants to know whether a space is common or a unit, or did I get that wrong?

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Reading over all the comments above I would lean more towards keeping the common spaces separate:

  • it is nicer to have the common spaces spread out over the whole plot so everyone will come to another part of the plot once in a while
  • having the most sunny spot of the garden in front of the common living room is an advantage because this is a spot in the garden where people will meet for sure
  • when it’s colder, it is nice to sit in the sun inside behind the glass. as a lot of apartments don’t have sun inside, it is nice to have this aspect in the common living room

But again, I don’t have a strong opinion, so I won’t stand in the way if we would decide to put all the common spaces in the front again.

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my understanding (but maybe to be checked with the architects), there is no such thing is an affectation ‘common spaces’. There is nothing foreseen towards cohousings, so ‘common spaces doesn’t exist in their dictionnary’.

  • for me the affectations the commune cares about is
    • 'housing destination (our private units and common spaces, social units) ,
    • commercial destination,
    • maybe garden
  • and then there are other elements that might help to commune to be convinced (social units), the fact we have a space open to the neighbourhood (don’t know if this falls under housing destination’, it might not.)

So my assumption is that the reef only zone is considered as ‘housing’ affectation.
Maybe I created confusion by saying that common spaces/private spaces felt under the ‘affectation’ round on saturday. For me this was an important topic as the proportion of commons/private units has an impact on the price, and that is also something we need to agree on…

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Hello @reeflings,

It looks like we’ll be doing some rounds to see where everybody stands on this, so if you have space it would be lovely it you could give this some thought.

One thing that is important to me is to get to this discussion with a shared understanding of the sizes and the number of people we will be.

On the number of people, the estimated numbers are around 33 adults and 7 children. The file with the estimation is saved in Team R&O’s folder: Login – Nextcloud

On the sizes, one reference we have is my own apartment, which is 75 m² net, which would be 90-95 m² brut. The width of the living room is about 6 meters, and from front to back is about 13 meters, all net. A sketch of the plan is saved in the estimations folder: Login – Nextcloud

As agreed at the last plenary we will NOT yet be talking about the price increase. At the same time it is imporant to be aware of the fact that nothing is for free, hence my invitation to get a feel for the size of spaces, as this will be one possible option to bring down the price a little.

A final suggestion to get a feel for the size of spaces would be to visit the blue-yellow pre-portal of hell that sells furniture around the globe, where they note the size of the rooms and mini-houses they have on demo. This could also be useful for your own unit. I wrote something about that here: What a small unit could look like - #3 by Lee

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do you know where we can find this program? i remember there was a table with pros and cons if i remember well. thanks

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It’s in Team Reef > Proposals > 2024 > “le programme v3”: Login – Nextcloud

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hi @reef-full ,
(@reef-associate : this Wednesday’s plenary is only for full members, but feel free to complete the pro and con’s list)

On the agenda of coming Wednesday’s full members plenary meeting we’ll have the topic ‘Common spaces - where to put them’.

Some history to this topic

  • This topic was discussed on three occasions:
    • when preparing the ‘Le program private and common spaces’ on which the architects made a proposal for the division of three buildings. (link to consolidated document).
    • in the plenary of 15/10/2024 where a brief list of pro’s and con’s was given (link to the presentation, slide 9)
    • in the plenary of the 26/10/2024 where we had an open discussion on where everybody stood towards this topic, leading to extra pro’s and con’s (that you can find back in the minutes). An extra action point came out of out for team building: ask the architects for a sketch for these two scenarios (which they’ve promised to deliver before next Wednesday)

Approach suggested by team building of this topic on the full members plenary of coming Wednesday

  • Team building has made a summary of the pro’s and con’s mentioned during the above discussions. The file can be found here. => associate and full members, please read and feel free to complete this list
  • We’ll be getting the sketches of the two scenarios from the architects => do a round in the plenary and complete the list with pro’s and con’s.
  • apply the same approach as in the meeting before the summer holidays:
    • every full member pronounces it’s preference
    • the preference for the majority of the people will be set as the proposal
    • check if this proposal is sth every member can live with. And if not see how the proposal can be adapted so everybody can live with it.

As it’s a difficult/sensitive topic, if somebody wouldn’t agree with this approach, doesn’t have enough information to take this decision, please speak out now.

So @Lee : if there are no remarks to this approach and if nobody indicates there is a lack of information to take the decision, i would change the objective of this topic to ‘consent on the location of the common spaces’

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I personally worry a bit that receiving the plans from the architects on the same day as we are having the plenary is a bit too short to jump immediately to consent. I first thought “we can always give it a try,” but as a matter a fact, I think this makes it really difficult for those who cannot attend the meeting to express their views, and that doesn’t sit well with me given the importance of the topic.

So my preference would be to stick to exploration, and give everybody the space to reflect in between this and the next meeting. Would that work, or is there an urgency that I’m not seeing?

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This is not wrong. @RichardB said “after the decision to purchase the site, decisions over the common spaces are the most important we’ll ever make, because a cohousing is defined by its common spaces”.

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@reeflings

I’ve added the extra pro’s and con’s that came out of last wednesday’s plenary (13/11/2024).
This will be used as input for the plenary of 21/11/2024, where the aim is to come to a decision on where to locate the common spaces.
If you cannot be present coming Thursday and you want to vote by proxy, let chris or me know. Like Chris mentioned, this is not ‘one proposal’ you consent to or not, so some extra input will probably be needed.

Link to the pro’s and con’s in the ‘location of the commons spaces’ under the ‘common spaces folder’ (under team building)

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I cannot be present and nominate @Lee as my proxy.

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hello @reeflings, I have been rereading all the arguments and I added some extra in the document regarding privatisation of common spaces & less competitiveness / more fairness regarding to the process of choosing an apartment.

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Hi @reeflings !

I’ve spent the last week thinking about the decision we are in the process of making regarding whether to have the common space in both the Obelix and Idéfix buildings, or have one common space in Obelix. I have my own preference, as do others, but this post concerns my role as the facilitator, and will attempt to provide clarity about the decision-making process itself.

As you all know, we use sociocracy to organise ourselves and make decisions because it is designed (amongst other things) to allow every member’s voice to be heard, and to arrive at decisions that everyone consents to (and can therefore live with). A proposal is put forward, questions are asked and answered, and any concerns are raised. If those concerns can be dealt with, the proposal is consented to. If not, the proposal is reworked and/or adapted, sometimes in that moment, and at others at some point later, to return to a plenary on another day.

Why am I (over)explaining this? Because what we are faced with currently is different. What we have is an initial proposal (common space in both the Obelix and Idéfix buildings) and a counter-proposal (one common space in Obelix). According to Many Voices, One Song (our go-to manual for sociocracy): “The complexity, both around process and on content-level, increases immediately as soon as a counter-proposal is on the table, and we have seen many groups lose their focus in the face of this complexity.”

Which is in no way to say that members shouldn’t make counter-proposals, just that they are a special type of challenge from a facilitation perspective. It should be noted that neither the initial proposal nor the counter-proposal has ever been on our agenda as a potential decision, only as discussion points. Which means that the Full Members have never been asked to consent to either proposal, which is always our starting point before considering other forms of decision-making (more on this below). It is also worth noting that when we consent (or not) to proposals at a plenary meeting, we are doing so (as much as possible) with the interest of the Reef in mind, rather than in accordance to our preferences.

So this is what I propose for the plenary on Thursday, based on the sociocracy handbook and what our governance document says about making level 4 decsions :

  • We make a decision on the original proposal (questions/concerns/consent)
  • We make a decision on the counter proposal (questions/concerns/consent)
  • Those not at the plenary have the right to object to either proposal in the following two days

If all members can live with one proposal, but some cannot live with the other, then the decision is made. If everyone can live with both proposals, or if both proposals have some people who cannot live with them, we follow our governance document and move to alternative methods of decision-making, which would be qualified majority voting (QMV) or multi-voting (some form of the latter being the most likely).

If we arrive at this point, there are additional challenges, such as how much weight to give to personal preferences vs the good of the Reef, or how to weight certain criteria. It’s also more complicated to give a proxy if we go with multi-voting over QMV. This can all be worked out in the period between this week’s plenary and the following meeting, at which time (according to Team Building) a decision will have to be made.

One last thing. I think we can all agree that there have been times when we avoided complex or difficult decisions by ‘kicking the can down the road’. I do not think this is one of those times. Having two diametrically opposed proposals, with passionate voices on both sides and differing perspectives about what is in the best interest of the project itself, is no small thing to deal with. And this will undoubtedly not be the last time that we are in this position. Which is why I think it is important to stick to our working methods and governing guidelines as much as possible.
:slight_smile:

(For more info on counter-proposals, see page 215 of Many Voices, One Song: Login – Nextcloud)
(For more info on how we aim to make decisions at the Reef, see Section 5 of the governance document: Login – Nextcloud)

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