The perfect place to live

Small Scale Communities in a Large Scale World

Imagine you live in small community where kids can play beyond the front gate, your neighbor would feed your cat while you are on vacation and you help the older man next door cutting a hedge. That is what Ross Chapin calls a Pocket Neighborhood. A pattern of housing that fosters a strong sense of community among nearby neighbors, while preserving their need for privacy.

With “Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small Scale Community in a Large Scale World” Ross Chapin wrote a guidebook for building neighborhoods where people engage with each other in a small scale community. The book includes stories about healthy, sustainable neighborhoods, the people who live there and the planners, architects, developers, craftspeople and gardeners who helped build them. The book covers historical and new neighborhood examples with photos, drawings, illustrations and site plans.

Everything started with eight little cottages that architect Ross Chapin and developer Jim Soules built up in 1996 around a shared garden. Because the cottages were off from a busy street arranged like a small island, Chapin described it as a pocket safely tucking away its possessions from the world outside. And he began calling it a “pocket neighborhood”.

People loved the houses not only for their pleasant style but also for they fulfilled an unmet longing for community. Soon different people from all over – families, singles and empty-nester couples – got interested in the idea and asked for more “real” communities.

Find out more about Pocket Neighborhoods: www.pocket-neighborhoods.net offers research archives, a blog as well as pocket neighborhood case studies and site plans.