• Seamless town extension with affordable housing

    Tregunnel Hill in Cornwall, England, proves that the principles used in Prince Charles's Poundbury are replicable.
    In the Village of Newquay a new urban neighborhood has been built with local materials and workers, trained in an apprenticeship program. Nearly 90 percent of the new residents have moved in from the immediate area, a remarkable feat in a popular resort setting. Twenty-eight percent of the units...Read more

  • ‘Walkabout’ design with human sensors: Campus design, part 4

    A revolutionary method of direct human responses to imagined forms, performed on the actual site, reveals a vast amount of useful design information not otherwise available.
    Author’s note: This is the fourth in a series of ten essays that present innovative techniques for designing and repairing a corporate or university campus. These tools combine New Urbanist principles with Alexandrian design methods. Alexander’s implementation of participative design — essential...Read more

  • Neighborhoods are key to sustainable future

    A review of Douglas Farr’s Sustainable Nation: Urban Design Patterns for the Future
    Safeguarding the environment—largely by designing and operating buildings and communities more wisely than we’ve done for the past 200 years—is the most crucial endeavor the Earth’s inhabitants are now engaged in. If we fail, not only will the weather turn more deadly. Many species will die out,...Read more

  • Rebuilding for victims of California wildfires

    Model cottages will provide temporary housing for Habitat families who lost their homes to the fire, and these cottages can eventually be relocated for use as permanent housing.
    In October of 2017, wildfires in Northern California burned at least 245,000 acres and over 5,000 acres in Sonoma County alone. Since then, Habitat for Humanity of Sonoma County has explored ways to expand its programs across the board to serve households displaced by October’s devastating...Read more