casa de vecinos

13:39 May 12, 2009 

Thanks everyone for your input so far. The term is repeated several times in my text, which is confidential at this stage, so I do not think that posting a sentence or two will be more helpful than my explanations. I have also noted that in some places they use the term to refer to ALL houses with patios in the city, whether they are inhabited by a single family or many, so I will not be able to use community or communal as a translation all the time (and I am inclined to translate and not leave it as it is). To answer another question, yes the patios are the inner courtyards of these houses.

13:14 May 12, 2009 

...retain the Spanish term...

13:14 May 12, 2009 

containing the term would help, since I think you will probably have to retaining the Spanish term and pad it out, hard to tell what would work without a bit more to go on.

10:08 May 12, 2009 

In Mexico these are vecindades -- same concept, not exactly communal, though certainly everyone living there shares certain conveniences, like a patio for hanging out the wash, and back in the day, the wash area in the patio (rough sinks made of concrete or stone).

10:05 May 12, 2009 

A colleague confirms that these are large dwellings, occupied by extended family or various families, built round a communal patio, where washing etc used to be done in the past, which now tend to have been converted into completely separate flats. I'd stick with the original and explanation.

The equivalent in Madrid would be the Corrales, and if you go into DRAE for corral, this leads you to "Casa de Vecindad" for Andalucía, with this definition: de vecindad.

1. f. La que contiene muchas viviendas reducidas, por lo común con acceso a patios y corredores.