posted 8 years ago
I have communicated and shown potential plans to the neighbors on the east and west side of the home. The external perimeter wall will have some plants to garnish the perimeter, but nothing that would allow vermin or raccoons to easily scale the wall. Since we are in the middle of the block it won't obscure any ones view more than the house would, if it were built in line with the rest of blocks homes. We have been as open and transparent as possible with the intent of why we want that style. Security and containment are big reasons for us. For the southern court, there will only be one point of ingress/egress and that is through the house. This area will be used for free ranging our children, but also with the structure of the house and veranda like perimeter, it will be used for water collection. There are a few other containment and security issues for me, for the sheep, chickens, ducks and other animals we are allowed, I want increased potential protection from neighborhood dogs and pests. Functionally it provides some fun things to try for water management. I chose that style of layout (siheyuan) but have been trying to optimize self-sufficiency within the quadrants. For water distribution and retaining, I have been studying polder's and terracing. With proper implementation, we could keep the pasture and anything grown in the southern court watered with minimal use of pumps or our seasonal reservoir water supply. The southern border of the house is graded about 10 inches lower (over 330 ft) than the northern border, so that will provide a little assistance in the flow. When I talked to the neighbors, one of my major points is that we want to keep our kids crap out of other peoples lawns. That is a nice selling point for them since there have been quite a few issues with that in the past from other neighbors. Honestly though, I like walls. No wall can ever compensate for us teaching our kids how to respect others and the tools/toys they have, but I still like those boundaries. To get a bit nerdy, I always think of a cell wall, it is there for organization and function, but selective permeability is needed to have it thrive in relationship to it's neighbors. And on that note, I let anyone I talk to know that the wall isn't there to keep people out, and when I build it, I will be inviting people in as often as it is appropriate.
Another reason I chose that style is because of replication and exchangeable parts. We will be experimenting on what we can produce in town, what works for my wife (homemaker) and my schedule, what we actually end up using and can utilize in a routine, what works with/for the kids, etc. About 5-10 years after the initial in-town set up is done, we will be doing it on a larger scale out in the country on 10 acres. It will have the same perimeter wall, but the guts of it will change based on our experience. By that time our children will be mostly in the age of 10-15 and about ready to start with more intensive work at home.