‘New Urbanism’ Taking Over the Suburban American Dream

Livin’ in the suburbs ain’t what it used to be. Where once there was an endless parade of ‘little boxes on the hillside’ – with their flawless emerald carpets of grass, shiny SUVs in each driveway and children riding their bicycles along the sidewalks – now has become dotted with abandoned buildings, overgrown grass, graffiti and caution tape. American suburbs are starting to look like the alt-timeline version of Marty’s hometown in Back to the Future: desolate and crime-ridden.

The suburban American dream is dying, helped in no small part by the subprime mortgage crisis and perhaps set to be finished by ever-rising energy costs. While some may mourn this picturesque model of American living and all of the Norman Rockwell nostalgia that goes along with it, others are seeing a better future in urban living. What many people are finding is that urban life is the sustainable model of living that will help us cut back on pollution and preserve what’s left of our untouched land.

CNN has more:

This change can be witnessed in places like Atlanta, Georgia, Detroit, Michigan, and Dallas, Texas, said Leinberger, where once rundown downtowns are being revitalized by well-educated, young professionals who have no desire to live in a detached single family home typical of a suburbia where life is often centered around long commutes and cars.

Instead, they are looking for what Leinberger calls “walkable urbanism” — both small communities and big cities characterized by efficient mass transit systems and high density developments enabling residents to walk virtually everywhere for everything — from home to work to restaurants to movie theaters.

The so-called New Urbanism movement emerged in the mid-90s and has been steadily gaining momentum, especially with rising energy costs, environmental concerns and health problems associated with what Leinberger calls “drivable suburbanism” — a low-density built environment plan that emerged around the end of the World War II and has been the dominant design in the U.S. ever since.

Experts are anticipating a major structural change in the way we live, driven by the desire for walkable communities that keep us close to everything we need to live our daily lives – public transportation, employment, shopping and recreation. It’ll take a while for the country to catch up, since governmental regulations and zoning laws will have to be adjusted to allow for high-density developments, but after a while it’s expected that all of those suburban McMansions will get divided up into multi-family housing for the poor.

Many people will see this as gentrification of our urban centers, and fear that the spirit of many of our cities will be compromised. It generally does happen that as downtown real estate is purchased by developers to turn into condos or other high-end spaces, the colorful small businesses that once flourished are forced out. Hopefully, cities will make an effort to retain diversity in urban areas so that in the process of ‘new urbanism’, our cities don’t turn into gleaming re-arranged versions of the stereotypical homogenized suburban neighborhood.

Link [CNN]
Photo credit: Jim Zarroli/NPR

Namba Parks: Awesome Green Architecture in Japan

Does this look like the future, or what? One of the major drawbacks to living in an urban area, in my opinion, is the lack of sufficient green space. I find all the concrete and asphalt depressing – I need nature. Architecture that incorporates green space into the design can be a big draw to get people into urban centers and putting a stop to suburban sprawl. I would love to see more buildings like this worldwide.

The details from MetaEfficient:

In a city with few green spaces, Namba Parks is a welcome swath of green for the inhabitants of Osaka. Check out this full size photo of this amazing piece of architecture. The complex stands where Osaka’s baseball stadium used to be until 2003, and consists of a 30-floor skyscraper, Parks Tower, and a shopping mall with eight floors of terraced gardens. The sloping park connects to the street, welcoming passers-by to enjoy its groves of trees, clusters of rocks, cliffs, lawn, streams, waterfalls, ponds and outdoor terraces.

Link [MetaEfficient]
Photo credit: Flickr user A Posh Sentinel

220-Acre Greenhouse Planned in Britain

A greenhouse the size of 80 football fields is currently under construction in Kent. It will measure 140 meters long, and take up 220 acres. That’s one big ass greenhouse. Operated by Fresca Group Ltd, the greenhouse will have all the latest technologies and will be controlled by computers. The greenhouse has been named ‘Thanet Earth’, named for the Isle of Thanet on which it’s located, and will grow salad produce such as tomatoes, lettuce, peppers and cucumbers which will be harvested 52 weeks a year.

From The Telegraph:

Operators Fresca Group Ltd., say it will increase by 15 per cent the UK’s crop of salad vegetables most of which currently have to be imported.

It will have its own power generating plants to heat the cavernous greenhouses and the eco-friendly combined heat and power system will as a by-product provide enough electricity to supply half the domestic power needs of 50,000 homes in north-east Kent near to where the £80m complex is being built on the Isle of Thanet.

The greenhouses have been designed so crops can be grown suspended from the 8m-high ceilings so they are easier to pick and they will be grown in nutrient enriched water rather than soil.

Greenhouses of this size are fairly common in Europe, but this is the first time it’s been attempted in Britain. Kent was chosen as the site because it gets so much sunlight throughout the year. The greenhouse will have its own eco-friendly heat and power system that will produce enough energy to supply half the domestic power needs of 50,000 homes in the area.

Link [The Telegraph]

Rotating Wind Power Skyscraper to be Built in Dubai

Bloody hell! (Oh, how I wish I could use that in conversation without sounding like an asshole.) That is one sexy building in more ways than one. From David Fisher’s Dynamic Architecture firm comes the Rotating Tower, a self-sufficient sun and wind powered design that will be built in Dubai. Construction is set to begin this month.

Inhabitat has the details:

The Dynamic Architecture building has been aptly named Rotating Tower as the floors would be capable of rotating around a central axis. It will be continually in motion, changing shape and giving residents the ability to choose a new view at the touch of a button. The form of the building would constantly change as each floor rotates separately giving a new view of the building as it turns. According to Fisher, the building ensures a very high resistance to earthquakes as each floor rotates independently.

The new tower is the first building of its size to produced in a factory. Each floor, made up of 12 individual units, complete with plumbing, electric connections, air conditioning, etc., will be fabricated in a factory. These modular units will be fitted on the concrete core or spine of the building at the central tower.

With so much wealth concentrated in Dubai, I think we’re going to be seeing a lot more green innovation coming out of this little country. Imagine the possibilities that are still out there even after incredible inventions like this are conceived and built. This takes the shiny, cool sci-fi future of your childhood dreams and wraps it all up in a green package that can help take us out of the age of oil and into a new era.

Link [Inhabitat]

UK Eco House Sold for Record $14.2 Million

Known as the Orchid House, this eco-friendly dwelling recently smashed records when it sold for £7.2million, or $14.2million USD. The futuristic-looking home is one of the properties on the Lower Mill Estate, which aims to turn a disused gravel pit into a 450-acre nature reserve.

Inhabitat has it:

Possibly to subsidize the £3,000 per square foot cost of the property, the building aims to generate more energy than it consumes, making use of geothermal heating. The house can be adapted to any occasion, be it a family holiday or a large reception, due to its flexible living spaces. Inhabitants and visitors to the property can be entertained by the glass-sided badger set installed in the garden.

The inspiration for the form comes from the flora and fauna on the estate, with living and dining areas appearing to fan out from the building’s core. The form is created using laminated veneer lumber – not great for the planet, as it consists of layers of wood held together with adhesives – but it does stay beautiful longer than conventional timber. This lumber is then clad with timber shingles with a camouflage pattern burnt into them. The main living spaces join the home’s pontoon to float over the lake.

Rumor had it that Brad Pitt was going to buy this place, and before that it was said that Kylie Minogue was looking into it. The proud new owner chose to remain anonymous, and it’s been said that he or she is in the entertainment industry. All of the interest in the house from big names surely had a big impact on the perceived value of the place. The home is expected to be completed by 2011, and that’s when we’ll find out the name of the buyer.

Check out the rest of the images of the Orchid House at Inhabitat.

Link [Inhabitat]

Get a DIY Flat-Pack Home Delivered and Have an Attractive Cabin in Two Days

So you want to build your own home, but aren’t exactly a contractor. Maybe you don’t have the first clue how to go about doing it, and are in a hurry and strapped for cash. Until now, you would have had no choice but to give up your DIY dream. Lucky for you, a company called Argos has become the first major retailer to offer an attractive and affordable cabin that supposedly takes two people only two days to build.

From Springwise:

The British retailer’s basic five-room cabin, measuring roughly 32×17 feet or 8×5 meters, costs GBP 10,999. An upgraded model, with amenities such as laminate floors with in-floor heating, costs GBP 13,099. Both models are suitable for year-round living and are made by Finnish forestry company Finnforest using wood from sustainable forests.

Argos’ cabins open up several new-business opportunities. For starters, there’s likely a much larger market for ready-to-move-in cabins than for cabins that must first be put together, however easy their assembly might be. Thus, one option would be to buy the kits, assemble them and then resell the homes. The cabins’ low price coupled with their short assembly time would make the potential profit margin a lot greater than would be the case with conventionally built homes that require weeks to build.

Why stop at IKEA flat-pack furniture when you can have a flat-pack home? This is pure awesome. Just get yourself some land and you can have a nice, modest cabin that you won’t be paying off for decades to come. The entire thing (not counting land, utility hookups, surveys and permits) costs little more than the average down payment on a traditional home. This would be a great starting point for a compact homestead complete with solar panels and other energy-saving utilities.

Link [Springwise]

Edward Norton is Hot and Green

Actor Edward Norton didn’t just get green physically for his latest movie, the second incarnation of the Incredible Hulk on film. He’s an advocate of green building, too. Norton traveled to Washington, D.C. yesterday afternoon to testify to the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming on sustainable building.

SF Gate has it:

Norton told lawmakers the federal government should start a $5 billion fund to retrofit or construct better public housing that meets new environmental standards. He said low-income communities suffer most from pollution and high energy prices - and would benefit most from a shift to green buildings.

“We’re determined to include low-income housing in this conversation,” Norton said.

San Francisco was a pioneer a decade ago, when it enacted a law in 1999 requiring all city buildings to get the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.

Sigh. Edward Norton is dreamy. I think he was at his hottest in the movie America History X, in which he played a neo-nazi. Is that wrong? Anyway, it’s cool to see that he’s using his fame for a good cause and not just to show off or make himself look good. That’s what we like to see from ‘green’ celebrities.

Link [SF Gate] via [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Marvel Comics

‘Unbuilding’ Offers an Eco-Friendly Alternative to Tearing Down Houses

I’ve always thought, passing by buildings being demolished to make way for something new, that surely all of those materials that were being crushed and thrown away could have been used for something else. It seems incredibly wasteful to throw so much into landfills when it could be resold or even donated to charities that help build homes for the poor. I’m not the only one – more and more people are forgoing the old wrecking ball routine in favor of a more eco-friendly model, despite the increased cost and time.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that some people are choosing to ‘unbuild’ rather than tear down, which makes a lot of sense in today’s climate of heightened sensitivity to waste.

From the Wall Street Journal’s Nancy Keates:

Unbuilding our home will take longer (two weeks) and is more expensive (about $4,000 more) than simply crushing it and throwing everything out. Even with the tax deduction and what we save by reusing our old materials and appliances, we still come out a little behind. But since we are reusing so many things — and because it seemed like the eco-friendly/right thing to do — we decided to go ahead. (Another option is to hire the local fire department to burn it down as practice; that often allows a whole house deduction for tax purposes. Instead of deducting just the pieces, which are worth less.)

This kind of thing is exciting – it represents a change in the way people are thinking about so many different aspects of life. It also means that more history will be preserved, even if it’s taken apart and put back together again somewhere else. The important thing is, all of those materials won’t be sitting in a landfill of no use to anyone at all.

Link [Wall Street Journal]
Photo credit: Flickr user Editor B

Extremely Phallic, Clean Techonology Skyscaper makes our Editorial Intern Think Dirty Thoughts

Caroline likes…

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture of Chicago are working on a new wind-powered skyscraper that will make you need to cross your legs.

The curved tip of the building will be covered with a photovoltaic helmet, and turbines up and down the (ahem) shaft of the proposed structure will direct the windy cities’ wind inward for power and insulation. The eco-ingeniousness alone is enough to make you want to rub up against it. Then, you take a look at the slick, strong lines of the building and there’s no holding back. Seriously, the building looks exactly like a skyward-pointing, throbbing male organ complete with glorious mane of lush, green pubic hair. Can’t wait until it’s erect..ed.

Link [TrendHunter]

It’s So Simple It’s Genius: Green Affordable Homes From Landfill Scrap

Dan Phillips of Huntsville, TX has built an amazing home. It’s Dr. Seussian and is built using reused and recycled materials. It’s warm, organic, and entirely delightful. 85% of the home is built with items that were heading to the landfill or burn pile. He runs The Phoenix Commotion with his wife Marsha and their goal is to spark a movement helping the working poor build homes for $20k-50k.

People enrolled the program would be required to spend $500 on tools, have a regular job, and no or good credit. They’re paired up with a local building professional and build their home using left over local and scrap material that would otherwise be heading to the landfill.

Dan’s motto is “It’s so simple, it’s genius”. I think that just about nails it. Dan’s a genius with a smart idea and I hope to see it catch on everywhere. We’ll be following this one.

Link [The Phoenix Commotion]

Photo: Hollywood Frame Gallery

Eco-Fail! HGTV’s Green Home Giveaway and The Yukon Hybrid

Huh?

How did the people behind the Green Home Giveaway promotion for HGTV choose a Yukon Hybrid to put in the driveway? Someone screwed uuuuuuupp. That thing is a monster of a truck pulling a whopping 21/22 MPG (the regular Yukon gets 14/20).

Weeeeeak. Haven’t they heard of the Prius?
Link [Ecorazzi]

Very Stupid Eco-Arsonists Torch Green Homes in Seattle Suburb

The Earth Liberation Front has been blamed for burning down a handful of some fairly “green” homes in a big money suburb of Seattle. The three million dollar homes were part of the “Street of Dreams” development and were designed, built, and sold (or in the process of being sold) for charity.

The Huffington Post has it:

No injuries were reported in the fires, which began before dawn in the wooded subdivision and were still smoldering by midmorning.

The sign left behind said in red scraggly letters, “Built Green? Nope black!” and “McMansions in RCDs r not green,” a reference to rural cluster developments.

In an alternate universe it was a shady developer or bank looking to get out of having to sell homes in a suddenly very unfriendly market with a quick spray painted sign to throw the blame ELFs way.

Whoever did this is a dumbass, especially if they try to claim they did it for the environment. Torching a bunch of big homes releases all sorts of crazybad pollutants into the air. I don’t understand the logic of lighting fire to a development that was actually taking a step towards being green and either way you know a new home will be built on the lot after they bulldoze away the charred wood and ash.

Stupid eco-arsonists.

Link [Huffington Post]

Great Green Design: The Heineken Bottle That Doubles as a Building Material

Here’s another wickedly smart green design idea- manufacture beer bottles so they can be reused as a building material.

Heineken manufactured these purely awesome bottles back in 1963 because one of their brewers saw the lack of cheap building materials and the glut of beachside bottle litter while on vacation in the Caribbean. Functional, green, economical, and gorgeous to boot. We need more of this.

Link [Frostfirezoo]

There’s Something Special About the Low Impact Natural Homes

As much as I love technology and gadgets, sometimes it’s nice to soak in a shot of simplicity. I think that’s why I’m such a big fan of natural material green homes. I fell in love with the Low Impact Woodland Home last year when I read about how it was built by two guys over four months using natural local materials and $7,000. They used trees cut from their land, local straw bales, and dirt dug from their foundation. The house they built is alive, warm, organic, and pure awesome:

Steve James did much the same thing. He built an uber green all natural round home with the help of friends in Scotland for $7,800 using straw bales and a green turf roof. Here’s a snip from a story about him:

When he’s expecting visitors, Steve James watches out the windows so he can catch the look on their faces when they see his house for the first time. “It’s always the same,” he say. “There’s an intense stare and total mystification, as if they can’t quite believe what they are seeing.” This may be because James’s house is made of straw and has a turf roof covered in flowers.

James is passionate about eco homes and deeply proud of the cottage, which huddles by a loch near Dumfries. His kitchen is made from a cedar that blew over in a Glasgow park. His sink came from a skip. To one side is a Moroccan marbled shower room, to the other are sofas and a log-burning stove. He sleeps in a galleried bedroom. A compost loo and rainwater filtration system complete the picture.

You can check out Steve’s site Envisioneer to read more about how he pulled it off.

Link [Envisioneer] via Neatorama

EarthFirst Links-O-Rama: Wolverine Goes Green, Planktos Buried at Sea, and Maybe Crazy Solar Shields Aren’t So Crazy

Here are a few good links and stories I’ve come across this week. Enjoy! • Producers of ‘Wolverine’ Partner with Green Firm to Audit and Reduce Impact While Shooting Movies • WorldChanging: Planktos, Geo-Engineering, and Politics • Porsche Motors Fighting London on Gaz Guzzler Tax • Kentucky Cracks Down on Tree Thieves • Russia Tower, Third Largest Building in the World, Will Have Natural Ventilation • Save Time with Robertson Screws • Suburban Family Gives Up Oil Based Products for One Year • Catalytic Converters Getting Boosted as Platinum Price Rise • Treehugger: Crazy Solar Shields Not 100% Crazy • New materials Can selectively capture CO2 Links Photo taken by Flickr user Stringberd.