I've been anxiously waiting for trailer parks to get their due in the design world.

In the interview article it states that this community has no running water and they have community rest rooms and shower facilities. Cute houses, peaceful, but I'll pass on the full-time camping.

The first homes (Geneva, IL) don't have running water. Not sure about the others.

The way we're using up our resources, we could all be living this way someday. I think these are great. And they are hardly "trailer parks."

The only thing I don't like in the second picture is have my neighbors that close on all sides.

^^^^ having.

there are a number of methodist summer "camps" at the southern new jersey shore that you should check out. wonderful groups of victorian (some pretty high style) cottages in miniature. there's an excellent one in south seaville.

The cottage community in Oak Bluffs, on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. It is a now a National Historic Landmark.
These are privately held tiny cottages known for their bright colors and gingerbread architecture. Visit the Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting Association website for more history and rental/sale/events information:
www.mvcma.org

There is a lovely car-free cottage community on the Toronto Islands. It has been there since the early 1900s, I believe.

I've been familiar with Ross Chapin's "Pocket Homes" ever since he was featured in an issue of Fine Homebuilding. I LOVE the concept of scaling down and enjoying a tight-knit, community or similarly minded neighbours!

I used to live on a lake just north of Toronto in what could easily have been described as pocket home community. It wasn't planned that way, it simply evolved. These were old homes and had originally been built as simple cottages, or in one case, a working public steambath (long since closed and coverted to 3 apts., one with a working sauna and a blue tiled locker room for the dining room!...yup..cool!).

Their were 3 structures housing 5 separate households, down a common lane, and sharing our lakefront. Our landlord was fairly careful in choosing tenants that he new would "fit in" and as a result, we all became great friends and an extended family more or less.

Several years ago and out of the blue, our landlord was approched by a buyer who wound up purchasing the property for a single large home. During the 2 weeks it took for the surprise transaction (and our ultimate eviction) to occur, I tried desperately to find some financing for a counter offer with the vision of building a new pocket community similar to Mr. Chapin's. Sadly I couldn't and no matter how I crunched the numbers, "affordable" could never have been part of the equation. In addition to that, zoning would have been a huge issue.

I keep the concept in my mind and would welcome the opportunity to offer people an alternative to the acres of identical brick mini-mansions that define housing in the Toronto area.

To see "before" and "after" aerials of the site, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/7547630@N08/

Sally - I wasn't implying that the photos above were trailer parks, nor was I saying anything negative about trailer parks. I love the idea of trailer parks - small, individual housing on a community lot and the possibility of moving your unit elsewhere in the country. The author of this post commends "walkability, knowing your neighbors, a sense of community and open space preservation." These things could exist in trailer parks and it's a nice idea to embrace. It's unfortunate that trailer parks have a (mostly) negative reputation.

The thought of a community of small houses sounds so lovely! I love the whole concept of a separated subdivision (as opposed to houses along a city block, like I grew up on) without being giant cookie-cutter houses in a huge development. Just having 5 or 6 or 10 small houses close together would be so nice! You could share a community garden, feel safe having your kids playing in the street, throw block parties, it all sounds too good to be true =)

@Sheilalady , it sounds like you had a wonderful thing going there. It's so awful that a megahouse came in and ruined it all! =( And half of the damage was just done by that oversized driveway! I can understand how people like houses with tall ceilings and a wide open spaces feeling, but I'll never understand huge houses full of unnecessary space that goes unused. I hope you're able to fulfill your dream of having another community someday!

Thanks Natalie! I'll post when it happens and you can live there too! LOL!

This is so awesome. I want to live in a community like that some day.

There's a great small house community in Maryland called Greenbelt. It was built during the New Deal era as a Utopian community. All the houses are 1200 sq.ft. and smaller, all with backyards. There's also a community meeting house and large amounts of common green space. It's about midway between Baltimore and DC, on a subway line.

Excellent stuff. Go small houses!!

Sheilalady, that is so depressing. And that driveway looks like an airport runway. So sick of McMansions. There is an area near here, Potomac, MD, that is nothing but McMansions. Worked for a gardening company and we tended the yards there. Watched owners come home, get out of cars, go inside and never step into the yards much less connect with a neighbor. Of course when your nearest neighbor is a half mile from your door I guess it circumscribes the whole 'neighbors' thing. Vacant lots have more life.

My friends and I have said it would be nice to live like this when we are older, everyone would have a task..except I was elected for the cooking and cleaning.

These are darling.

Hmmm...yeah...I've never really isolated the various components of the after/mansion image as they all just blend together in my mind...but you're right natalie and bb99...that is one hell of a driveway isn't it?...

Weird thing is, I'm a landscape designer and a large percentage of my clients own homes like this. I guess I've got a terminal case of NIMBY! HaHa

I wonder too, what will happen to all these places in the future when the boomer's and x-er's have all gone and fewer can afford to live like this?...If they were built well I could see them divided into apts (like many old homes in NA cities). If they weren't built to last, I guess they'll be bulldozed and more realistic housing finally built.

Sheilalady, I have often wondered the same thing. Will the McMansions of today become the multi-family dwellings of tomorrow, not as desirable but affordable to people of limited means?

I actually don't think it is possible because of the design of most of them. In an older home (say, a Victorian or an American Four Square) the floors are generally the same dimensions, there are windows on each level and the plumbing is stacked from floor to floor. It's easy to see how they can be converted. In the typical McMansion, so much of the space is wasted by vaulted ceilings, great rooms, vast undefined spaces, and so on. I suppose anything is possible, but the combination of the weird layouts and the poor quality construction of most of them, my guess is they would be razed and replaced by something more space-efficient and livable.

How sad for you to witness that destruction firsthand.

Sally305, you're absolutely right about the inefficiency of splitting up some of the new monster houses. By the time it was finished it would have been better to start from scratch. The more modest mini-mansions would be easier.

Interestling enough, I now live in an American Four Square which has been gutted and easily renovated in two lovely apts. Neighbour downstairs has the main and bsmt..I have the 2nd and attic (actually a pretty cool and spacious loft! I love it here..great space...2 bdrms, 2 baths (one ensuite), in a pretty, treed area of the old town...close to everything! Can't be beat, but I do know that I'm occupying far, FAR more space than I should. This house could easily accomodate 2 small familes. I'm kind of attached to my "stuff", but I'd love to have a small or "pocket" house and always I gaze in awe at the faboosh tiny places on AT!

Thanks for the condolences! It was extremely hard for all of us...much more than we anticipated. We all became very comfortable living there.

Sheilalady and Sally305 I am an "X-er" and can't afford the McMansions! I look at those huge houses and can't believe it nor can I imagine the cost of utilities! Well furnished and thought out homes are so much better!

I'd love to live in a little community like that.
Close neighbors don't bother me in the least - They're farther away then an apartment building or duplex...
..and chances are, they're more courteous since you can't help but get to know them when you're that close.

I hear ya RoxiGirl! I'm a boomer and I can't afford one of those either (nor would I want to)! hehehe. I'd say that many of my clients qualify as x-ers and they manage (somehow?!?) to live in those places...(things that make you go hmmmm).

I agree that well planned and furnished places are def the best...with enough space for your family (NOT your family and 400 of your closest friends)!!! LOL

These remind me of the "stuga" or little cottages found all over Sweden.

Toooooo close together!

I desperately want to find something smaller than what we are in- a 950 sq ft townhome. I want something about 700sq ft. My kids love sharing a room, so we literally have a bedroom here with NOTHING in it. I have the rest of the house organized, and set up how I love it... so we have this surplus space. Which means surplus utility costs. And surplus rent costs. But for the LIFE of me I cannot FIND a smaller house where I need it (Toronto or east to Oshawa.). Aaaaaagh.

I'm actually from greenbelt and while I love the look of the old part of town where these co-op homes exist, its starting to become a place that needs a lot of fixing on the social end of things. I hope that this community doesn't get run down by the generations that care less about it.