Pocket neighborhoods are small clusters of homes—houses, cottages, or apartments—arranged around a shared open space like a garden courtyard, a pedestrian lane, or even a reclaimed alleyway.
These spaces are thoughtfully designed to foster a sense of belonging, where neighbors feel connected and safe, and where the landscape itself encourages informal encounters and mutual care.
Think of pocket neighborhoods as “pockets of nearby neighbors.”
They’re ideal for people of all ages—whether you’re a single householder, an empty nester, or a young family—offering a built-in sense of community. It’s the kind of place where a child might find a “shirttail auntie” just next door, or a neighbor might lend a hand without being asked. These are neighborhoods where front porches, shared gardens, and walkable paths support both privacy and meaningful connection.
Pocket Neighborhood Questions
How is a pocket neighborhood different from a regular neighborhood?
Why is shared outdoor space so important?
Community sounds good, but does it come at the expense of privacy?
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Scale of Sociability |
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Shared Commons |
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Common Buildings |
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Room-sized Porch |
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Layers of Personal Space |
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Nested Houses |
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Corraling the Car |
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Eyes on Shared Space |
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On a small site, a pocket neighborhood will comprise a single cluster of 6-12 houses.
Larger sites will have multiple clusters of the same scale.
Beginnings
In 1996, when architect Ross Chapin and developer Jim Soules collaborated on building the Third Street Cottages, a cluster of eight small cottages around a shared garden. The cottages were tucked off a busy street, which seemed to Ross like a pocket safely tucking away its possessions from the world outside. He began calling it a “pocket neighborhood”, and the term stuck.
Pocket Neighborhoods
Creating Small Scale Community in a Large Scale World
Every few years a book comes along that profoundly shifts the way we think about subject, and when we look back a dacade or so after its publication, we see a dramatic shift brought about by the thoghts that the book contains. I believe this is book is such a game changer.
— Sarah Susanka, author of The Not So Big House