Spare Key Springfield: 2013

What Makes a Good Porch?

What makes a good porch?

Question: what are the characteristics for your dream-porch?

The book Pocket Neighborhoods is full of fascinating little asides. Page 24 includes a thought-provoking list of six rules-of-thumb for designing a good porch.

Porches are important because they provide a transition place between inside and outside. They also provide a transition between public and private space.

I've never really thought about the defining characteristics of a good porch. Non-architects like me simply know em' when we see em', but architects like Chapin know, for instance, that a good porch railing is "about 27 in. to 30 in. high--just the right balance of open and closed." (p. 27)

"Making a good porch is both an art and a science." -Chapin

Here are Chapin's six rules-of-thumb for a good porch: 1) Get the right location. 2) Make it a living space. 3) Make it large enough. 4) Don't cut through the middle. 4) Keep the porch open. 5) Define the edge.

He notes that the social life of a pocket neighborhood revolves around the front porch. Because everyone walks in the neighborhood, it's easy to strike up a conversation.

It seems to me, though, that most of the coolest porches I have seen in regular neighborhoods are back porches rather than front porches. I could be wrong, but I think front porches are stiff and formal places, whereas back porches are casual and comfortable.

What do you think? ... What makes a good porch?

3:19 PM
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Pocket Neighborhoods: Intro

books

I'm currently reading Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small-Scale Community in a Large Scale World (2011/Taunton Press) (book) (website) by Ross Chapin. The forward is by Sarah Susanka, author of The Not So Big House.

Pocket neighborhoods are clustered groups of neighboring houses or apartments gathered around a shared open space — a garden courtyard, a pedestrian street, a series of joined backyards, or a reclaimed alley — all of which have a clear sense of shared stewardship.

Scale: Pocket neighborhoods are about restoring small-scale communities. Recreating and revitalizing the neighborhood has long been the goal of community activists, many of whom are motivated specifically by the problem of isolation, which Pocket Neighborhoods talks a lot about, as well as by other social problems.

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Pocket Neighborhoods is a beautiful 200 page book, almost coffee-table-book size, with full color pictures of what pocket neighborhoods look like on every page. As I read it I look forward to blogging about the high points and interesting concepts on a section-by-section basis.