What is a Microvillage?

Imagine for a second:

Imagine close friends who you get along great with. Now imagine them as your neighbors. Your home life hasn't changed, but right outside your front door are friendly people who are near enough for impromptu get togethers; casual interactions without any impediments of travel, logistics, or scheduling.


Imagine, in addition to this, that your neighborhood has been designed to have semi-private outdoor (and perhaps indoor) spaces where social opportunities can occur. Maybe picnic tables, walking paths, a bench beside a wooded area, perhaps a gazebo or a special garden spot just a short walk from your front door. A quiet conversational spot where no one is imposing on anyone. Yes, your friend could just ring your doorbell, but if there is a mutual hang out spot, interactions can also happen spontaneously.

When we lived in our last house, we  had friends who inspired daydreams like these, because we got along so well. These "why-nots" became nicknamed "the pipe dream" which eventually became what we now call the microvillage design.  Why not explore designs that could facilitate community among likeminded friends? 


Our friends would come over for weekly potluck dinners and it was almost like being back in college. (We all were married with young families except for the occasional younger sibling that would join us.) The structure was always the same: we would all eat dinner and then the kids would play for a short while, eat their dessert and be prepped and put to bed (in pack-and-plays or sleeping bags wherever we could find a quiet spot). At this point, the adults would enjoy special desserts, games, drinks, but most of all good, uninterrupted, adult conversation. We called them "Friday Night Dinners" and it was a way to unwind together after a long week. 

This kind of close community life is easy to find at college campuses, but it's not so common in neighborhoods out in the real world. Colleges and universities are designed for it. They have common rooms, dining halls, picnic areas, cafes, sports fields, gyms, clubs' houses, all within walking distance of where students live. They are hotbeds for community, and one part of that equation is because they are constantly and actively building community, but another part is because the grounds and facilities exist to support a vibrant social life. Neighborhoods on the other hand don't have any planned semi-private space. (I guess you could argue: 'Streets and sidewalks!' But those are public spaces and their purpose is for access and movement, not a place to be, but a place to use to get somewhere else.)


I firmly believe that with a little strategic planning, a lot of logistical ground work, vision building, blood, sweat, tears, and commitment, the hypothetical I opened with above could be the a real experience for families, singles, couples, seniors, relatives, and friends. Moving beyond a traditional neighborhood model to a microvillage, in my mind, is one of the key factors that would transform our isolated proximity into meaningful community at the neighborhood level.

So what exactly is a microvillage?

We began sketching different ways to integrate these semi-private spaces into neighborhoods and arrived at what we now refer to as the microvillage theory (or microvillage for short). In essence, there is an inner common green space which is surrounded by walking paths, and then private house lots, which are bordered by a ring road. Then beyond the ring road there are usually open spaces or extensions of the private properties, going up to a wild or planned natural border edge that follows the perimeter of the microvillage.  This layout was influenced by pocket neighborhoods and the spatial arrangement of the garden city (but not its scale) and is also referred to as an inverted cul-de-sac (because it flips the traditional neighborhood center from being a paved and car dominated one to being a natural and livable space). Christopher Alexander, who we stumbled upon later, was talking about similar ideas in the 1970's in his work, A Pattern Language. (You can access a free full text copy here.) ​

Houses in the microvillage have a “double front” of sorts: they have a true front that faces the green and an access front that faces the road. Using landscaping, hedges, fences, and walls, their roadside backyard becomes their private spot, and their front yard abuts the semi-private green.

The microvillage is a vision that blends the idea of an intentional community and the primacy of private property.  On the spectrum of traditional neighborhood (exclusively private property connected by public property)  to commune (entirely composed of communally owned property) the microvillage lies somewhere in the middle depending upon what the desires of it's residents are. There is flexibility with ownership, but the basic model is that the individual house lots are owned by residents and the semi-private areas are co-owned and managed through a homeowners association of sorts. ​

Each microvillage should have a unique common vision and mission statement so that incoming residents can understand the spirit and intention for their neighborhood, and what is allowed and what is restricted. (what those specifics entail will vary depending upon the people and their desires for their local community) The land should be covenanted to provide protections (for both residents and the community), but above all, the microvillage is a design to promote interdependence without dependency, and independence without isolation.  It is a community, but it is really a purposeful neighborhood, and allows residents to flourish in their own private and independent ways alongside one another and in support of one another.

College students enjoy walkable semi-private spaces and senior living residences do as well. If we want to enjoy interconnected neighborhood life in our middle adult years, we need to dream, pursue, and construct it for ourselves.