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Village Homes

The American ancestor — same instincts, wrong height.

Village Homes hero — greenway between houses (photo needed)

City

Davis, California

Built

1975–1981

Height

1–2 stories

Type

Clustered houses + greenways

Developers

Michael & Judy Corbett

Landscape

Edible commons, swale drainage

Decades before this site's European examples, Davis built the American version of the instinct: houses clustered along shared greenways instead of streets, orchards and gardens as the commons, narrow lanes, natural drainage, fruit trees anyone can pick. Village Homes proved Californians will choose shared landscape over private lawn when someone actually builds it.

What to steal — and what to fix: the instincts are exactly right; the height is wrong. At one and two stories the density can't support a shop, a common kitchen, or transit. The courtyard block is Village Homes stood up on its end, in town.

Greenway — photo needed
The greenway commons behind the houses
Orchards — photo needed
Edible landscape as shared infrastructure
Lane — photo needed
Narrow lanes; the front doors face the green

Lessons for Berkeley

  • The appetite for shared productive landscape is proven in California — fifty years of waiting list.
  • Common ground works when homes face it — Village Homes' greenways are the Hof, unrolled.
  • At 1–2 stories the commons can't fund common rooms; height is what pays for the kitchen.
  • An American precedent to point at when the type gets called foreign.

Sources: published histories of Village Homes, Davis. Figures approximate.

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