Each colony is organized around three primary components: housing, a mixed-use building called the kitchen and agricultural buildings. Traditionally housing forms a courtyard with a central kitchen. Agricultural buildings extend away from the housing complex like fingers extending away from the palm of the hand. The mixed-use building contains the kitchen, dining area and church. It responds to the strong communal needs of the Hutterites — under this roof the colony gathers to eat, hold forum, worship, and celebrate. It is always occupied and provides a gathering place for the whole colony at least four times each day. Maintaining the equality of people and spaces, this very active building is almost indistinguishable from the housing.The construction system and exterior surfaces, including the roof with its low pitch, are the same.The only distinguishing feature is its central location. Exactly how central varies from colony to colony.At the Cayley Colony, the mixed-use building is in the middle of rows of houses, whereas at the Star Ridge Colony it is the piece that forms the closure to a circular courtyard. Housing is universally formed around a courtyard typology.The same roof covers the whole housing complex: in support of equality there is no attempt to distinguish one dwelling from the next.This is a visibly poignant contrast to ordinary suburban development where a similar type of ground-zero construction is employed yet the struggle for individuality is paramount. Each unit has a small front porch giving a place to sit and access to the house as the foundations rise two feet above grade.This common Canadian construction detail is exaggerated at the colonies where the basement is used as a living space and thus requires good daylight.The dwellings themselves are very simple: a common room, a closet, a bathroom, two bedrooms on the main floor, and two bedrooms in the basement.There are no individual kitchens as all meals are cooked and eaten communally. Storage is in small built-in counters units with cupboards above, and dressers in the bedrooms for clothing. In the house of Henry and Marie Walter a simple and familiar event has occurred. A bedroom on the main floor has been turned into a small office for the colony computer.According to Marie Walter the computer has become a necessity at the colony as,“...the finances have become so complicated here that Henry would be working 24 hours a day to keep up if he didn’t have it.”
from the top: Cayley garden, housing, porch Starridge Colony
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