A Sustainable Way of Life Becomes the Curriculum! Part 6
By Brian Skeele, on June 1st, 2011
Imagine. An elementary school and the surrounding neighborhoods joining together to become a sustainable community with the school at its heart -Part 6
Locally Created Services and Products – the Sustainable Economy Emerges
As homes and business were renovated into multiple-storied, zero emission buildings, more space was created for residences, services and commercial usages. A network of used clothing stores trades across town with other recycle stores. The clothing fashion center teaches sewing and clothing design and runs a brisk business featuring student consignments.
Bicycle sales and repair, a computer lab, a graphics design shop and café, a library and bookstore, a woodshop/metal shop and an eBay store have all opened with help from the Business Incubator Loan Fund. Entrepreneurs of all ages are encouraged with micro-loans, business skills training programs and affordable facilities, to create products and services that evolve into locally created jobs.
Mentors and apprentices share their love for teaching and learning. With the abundance of affordable housing, young adults can stay in their community and the long traditions of Santa Fe’s cultures are sustained…. READ MORE >>
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A Sustainable Way of Life Becomes the Curriculum! Part 4
By Brian Skeele, on May 18th, 2011
Imagine. An elementary school and the surrounding neighborhoods joining together to become a sustainable community with the school at its heart. Part 4
“If it Ain’t Fun, it Ain’t Sustainable”
If it ain’t fun, it ain’t sustainable!
Students of all ages have learned that working together with the whole community, coming up with inspired ideas on how to live more affordably and lighter on the planet, is fun. Out of a Community Design Day session, a recreational waterslide was created utilizing the rooftop of the 2-story addition. In the winter, a used snow-making machine, donated by the Santa Fe ski basin, turns the waterslide into “the Luge,” a great playground for the entire community. The water park and snow playground are the source of many lesson plans; hands-on everyday science.
So what kind of fun would you add to your future neighborhood??…. READ MORE >>
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Renovating Your Neighborhood Sustainable!
By Brian Skeele, on April 25th, 2011
Cooperation, Collaboration, a community based on common values…..Sounds so technical! What if your neighborhood made choices like incorporating a swimming pool or a movie theater into the community?? The ownership structure could be by membership, a coop, or a private business. The list of possible shared amenities and services is endless.
Transforming the American Dream
Maybe you’d like to down size in your neighborhood into a compound of casitas, small homes for seniors. Maybe your daughter would like more independence and yet would like to live nearby in one of the casitas. Maybe she has autism or maybe she’s changing careers.
The American Dream is morphing into community. We’re learning to work together to create a more abundant lifestyle, where we share more, own less, and have a higher quality of life, while living lighter on the planet.
What services and amenities would you like in your neighborhood? What would you like to give?
Share your ideas!! together we can make sustainable real! As for the neighborhood theater?? I make the best popcorn in the world.
Image courtesy of Architectural Record
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A more sustainable neighborhood…Bed ZED
By Brian Skeele, on April 5th, 2011
Built and occupied in 2002, Beddington Zero Emissions Development, Bed ZED, helps people go green with time tested encouragements. The resident on the right took too long a shower. the one on the left failed to recycle a beer can. What were they thinking, what planet are they living on????
Remember, don’t take too long a shower!
As you can see, my sense of humor loves to go gonzo. Twist the lines of reality and poke fun at our collective humanity. Hey, I own it…one of my favorite sayings is of the late Hunter Thompson, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
This post started out to be about Bed ZED and floor plans. It still is, just had a zany intro…
The point I want to emphasize is the relationship between neighborhood, shared amenities and your home’s design. In Bed ZED, the transit friendly location creates a deeper affordability as alternatives to private car ownership are expanded….WATCH BED ZED VIDEO>> READ MORE >>
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Envisioning A More Abundant Lifestyle
By Brian Skeele, on March 29th, 2011
A few years ago, the Sustainable Neighborhoods Focus Group came up with the idea of giving as a key to a more abundant lifestyle. Currently, infill and new development often give very little to neighborhoods, usually a loss of views and open space, more traffic, and a deadness associated with second homes and single use neighborhoods.
From our Focus Group, a vision emerged where the residents of existing neighborhoods get more; More abundance and aliveness, more safety with neighbors walking on the streets to more conveniently located services. Along with a healthier, more pedestrian friendly lifestyle comes innovative ways to share more amenities, creating a greater sense of community and providing a more affordable lifestyle, a lifestyle beyond suburbia, a lifestyle that lives lighter on the planet.
A Neighborhood that Serves Itself, while Serving Others!
The Focus Group identified conceptual “clusters” of homes or workspaces, designed around residents’ simple but fundamental essential common needs; (in other words, the “cluster” could be a scattered site)
- Child-Oriented Houses
- a Cohousing Group
- an Elder Housing Group
- a Live/work and Commercial Space Cluster
- a Small Houses and Eco-Homes Compound
- Artist Cooperative Workshops
- Young People Living Over Garages….
Giving More Amenities, Getting More Life
These different clusters were assigned services to be provided, not only to meet the cluster’s own needs, but as economies of sale require, to meet the needs of the adjoining clusters and the existing, surrounding neighborhoods…. READ MORE >>
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Curriculum – Because life is for learning!
By Brian Skeele, on March 21st, 2011
I should have been a woodshop teacher, (BA in Industrial Arts) but went into construction instead.
Much to my amazement, I keep being drawn to learning, my own ongoing growth and the Santa Fe School District’s trials and tribulations. Quite a few years ago, I came across the idea that schools could be centers of communities; in fact they used to be, all across America. The light bulbs went off…What if schools were reconfigured and became the hearts of “Mixed use, mixed income neighborhoods, with lifelong learning, and open space”??!!
Live, work, play, learn, shop, all within walking
If they were conveniently located, and multiple stories for commercial shops and teacher’s housing were added for smarter density, teachers could walk to READ MORE >>
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Entrepreneurship-Innovation from here on out
By Brian Skeele, on March 20th, 2011
Collaboration!
Our times call for rapid prototyping social, economical, and ecological strategies so the emerging sustainable economy can….emerge! Many of the jobs being created from evolving technologies, don’t even exist yet. We are inventing the future as we travel forward.
Half of the hottest futurist jobs don’t even exist yet, according to Daniel Burrus, author of Technotrends and CEO of Burrus Research Associates. “We’re in the early stages of shifting gears into the e-society,” he says. “Virtually every part of an enterprise will be e-enabled, which includes connectivity, content, commerce, communication, collaboration, and community.”… READ MORE >>
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WANTED: Killer Modeling Tool to Sell Sustainable Urban Villages! Part 2
By Brian Skeele, on March 10th, 2011
Continuing the walk thru of my take on the Killer Modeling Tool…
As the amount of input from the Charrette (design) process builds, the needs and desires of the future residents, landowners, finance people, city planners, designers, the school district, neighbors, etc, are collected. People are starting to get excited. The question is “How can we tell how close we are to achieving a socially, economically and ecologically sustainable lifestyle? ” or in other words “Where’s the Killer Modeling Tool??!!”
We can convert the demand and jump-start the emerging sustainable economy, if we can make all the numbers and qualities of life real (or at least a reasonable facsimile). Future residents will be assured of the quality and cost of moving in. The development/lending community will be reassured of the strength of the demand. The City will see the increased tax revenue vs the costs of infrastructure, etc.
How much residential does it take to make the commercial successful?… READ MORE >>
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WANTED: Killer Modeling Tool to Sell Sustainable Urban Villages! Part 1
By Brian Skeele, on March 8th, 2011
1/3 of the Boomers want to move in. 88% of the Millennials want to move in. The problem is, Sustainable Urban Villages don’t exist!
Building Your Neighborhood Sustainable
Well they do, between my ears and in my heart, but we need a great modeling tool so all the future residents, landowners, finance people, city planners, designers, the school district, and neighbors can see what there are signing up for/signing off on. Then the resuscitation of the construction industry can begin in earnest, the emerging sustainable economy can…emerge!
As this is the ultimate sales tool, we are building the neighborhood on paper, so the future residents can say, “Yes, if you build that, I’ll move in!”. And of course, the numbers have to work for everyone involved. Let me give you a walk thru of “the Killer Modeling Tool” as I conceive it…. READ MORE >>
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