janeAnne of Green-O-Lina fame ran an interesting competion for her June Challenge. She proposed designing a new community on a beautiful 2000 acre property. The winner, Loretta Buckner, focused on the need to create community efforts including gardens, energy, and housing clusters. However, even Loretta isn't immune to the seduction of suburban sprawl.
What struck me as I read through all of the entries, including Loretta's, was how deeply embedded the concept of an individual cottage/castle/home is in our culture. Almost all the entries talked about creating one or two acre parcels for individual owners. I'm not immune to the pull of the private rancho. Most of us, me included, see a big open piece of beautiful land, and the first thing we think of is how to chop it up and own a portion of it. It must be a deeply embedded human longing for it to occur in almost all the entries. As a society and real estate professionals we need to think hard and figure out ways to satisfy that urge to own our own little place while we figure out how to solve climate change and manage the end of cheap oil.
I have another community development project that's a real world project that can be purchased, planned and developed for several hundred people. I'd like to re-run janeAnne's challenge for smart, sustainable design soon, but with a requirement that housing be multi-family and building footprints be reduced and clustered. Stay tuned for the specifics and get your design hats ready for the real world or sustainability.
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