Hope everyone is having a great day so far!
Branching off from my previous blog, Post Food Scarcity, I wanted to more deeply explore something that I eluded to in that post, and that is the Community Kitchen. How a shared space amongst the community fosters a sense of togetherness while also helping to reduce the redundancies of appliances and tools since not everyone would need to procure their own. Is it possible for everyone to come together in such a way? And how does that impact the daily lives and spatial needs of the individual? Find out here:
What’s your opinion on this take? Could you envision yourself living in such a community? If not, what would you change? Always happy to hear other opinions, ideas, complaints, and experiences, so feel free to share! The more viewpoints I can experience, the stronger the ideas! 💪
If you made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read and hope you have a great rest of your day!!
I think that’s an astute observation.
The idea of greater shared common space in a city appeals to me, though I’m very aware that it has to be abundant enough to meet demand even during high demand periods, and it has to be voluntary instead of just obligatory due to lack of facilities.
I set up a mailing list for my apartment building, and I find that there are some people who like the routine socializing that occurs, and others who really just want their solitude. I think before moving to kitchen space, I wish more apartments had a shared-use tool room, since this is something most people need at various times, though not nearly as often as kitchen space. I think it would need to have at least someone responsible for enforcing a shared expectation of cleanliness, though selected democratically so people don’t feel beholden to this person or group.
I think shared kitchen space and exercise space would work well if social structure developed around their management. Something like, “I want to use the big kitchen next week since my family is coming over for Eid.” “Have you been using the little kitchen lately? I think Davka requires folks to have used the little kitchen and cleaned up at least twice in the last month to schedule the big kitchen. Or you could get Raul to vouch for you, he uses the big kitchen every Friday.”
Those are some good points to chew on.
In ways, I think, the community will grow to fit the demand, and vice versa. Purposing and repurposing as demand trends are learned. Communication will be more important than ever, but I can see that as a positive to force people into growing that skill, one that could solve a lot of problems.
Finding some way to avoid forcing one another to share a space and balancing that with better resource management is a tricky space to navigate. I understand the want for solitude, but I wonder how much of that stems from the inability to self-organize into a better social group?
I believe at some point social interaction does need to be encouraged and that there needs to be space held for it. Also, that people need the autonomy to live life as they choose. I think how those factors are balanced out will add flavor to the community though.