Courtyards or common areas used to serve a similar purpose, because it's where everyone dried their laundry or got together to talk. There are some smaller vill

Courtyards or common areas used to serve a similar purpose, because it's where everyone dried their laundry or got together to talk. There are some smaller villages in Europe where you can see this today. And it still exists all over Asia and Africa. I don't think you can nudge this kind of social behavior, because it depends on people wanting to hang out with their neighbors. Unfortunately, in postmodern online video-game-centric society, people prefer abstract and remote communities to hanging out with random neighbors who no longer feel as close in the social fabric as their online friends do. By definition, then, you'd be building a space for people of a very specific mindset who all wanted to interact. I for instance would not want to live in that type of building, because as much as I love person-to-person interaction at the bar of my choosing, a group conversation between friendly acquaintances is the last thing I want to walk through every single time I come and go from home. That might actually make me avoid coming back to my apartment, or make me run out real fast and be considered antisocial. When the truth is, I'm extremely sociable; I just don't want to be forced into it by my living situation. That's a good model in countries where people need their neighbors to survive, and live in big family groups. In a postmodern country, it may only attract a very specific age range and type who crave that kind of thing for social sustenance. I'm not saying it's bad, but living in Asia I did find it to be a bit oppressive and it's not something I'd choose.