Small Clusters of Homes Make the Best Communities

Jay Walljasper reviews Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating a Small-Scale Community in a Large-Scale World by architect Ross Chapin. Chapin says groupings of four to twelve households make the best communities.

1 minute read

March 29, 2011, 7:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur

Chapin says that small clusters of living units or houses that share a common area are the best breeding grounds for neighborliness:

Walljasper summarizes:

"...Chapin points out these commons can take many different forms-an apartment building in Cambridge with a shared backyard, a group of neighbors in Oakland who tore down their backyard fences to create a commons, a block in Baltimore that turned their alley into a pubic commons, or the residential pedestrian streets found in Manhattan Beach, California, and all around Europe."

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