I recently had a conversation with a civil engineer who specializes in highly integrated super efficient infrastructure projects. For example, the methane gas from a sewerage treatment plant can be captured and used to generate electricity. The waste heat from a power generator can be used to run a desalination plant. Purified sewer water can … Continue reading The Complexity Trap
I filmed this short video in a small town in Ohio to show what new accessory dwelling units can be like when the local authorities permit them. My friend Kirsten Dirksen here did a great job editing the story and I encourage people to check out her site for many similar videos. Alex and his wife are … Continue reading Ohio Accessory Dwelling Unit
I have an on-going correspondence with a particular city planner who recently asked, “What pushes a neighborhood down vs. what lifts it up?” In the end I suspect this is going to be like the old joke. Ask three rabbis a question and you’ll get five answers. Perhaps I should provide a few examples of popular … Continue reading The Urban Planner’s Dilemma
I’m a longtime advocate of walkable, mixed-use, mixed-income, transit-served neighborhoods. But lately I’ve been having impure thoughts about suburbia. Let me explain. What often passes for a neighborhood in America is a low grade assemblage of chain convenience stores, big box outlets, franchise muffler shops, multi-lane highways, and isolated cul-de-sacs. Even when it’s physically … Continue reading Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Sprawl (Sort of)
Earlier this year I got to know a woman who was in the process of building a tiny off-grid shop she’s calling the Locastore. See here. Back in May she was working with local authorities to meet all the necessary regulations and code compliance parameters in order to make the building legal. A couple of … Continue reading Locastore Follow Up
I recently interviewed Alex Melamed and Andrew Kline of Green Generation Building in Yellow Springs, Ohio Here for an upcoming video story. They design and build highly insulated homes that meet the Passive House standard. A Passive House uses innovative construction techniques to keep itself warm in winter and cool in summer with almost no fuel. The initial cost … Continue reading The Passive House Movement: Super Insulation and Radically lower Energy Bills
Gracen Johnson of Another Place For Me recently sent out a request for examples of adaptive reuses for outdated buildings. This is part of her exploration of what’s likely to happen to all the cheap, ugly, poorly constructed, disposable structures that currently litter the landscape all across North America. First, here’s an example of a completely … Continue reading Adaptive Reuse: Old Stuff, New Life
This video was edited by my friend Kirsten Dirksen of faircompanies.com This is a tale of how a hard core liberal achieved her goals by adopting a seriously conservative economic approach once she realized the usual government bureaucracies weren’t getting the job done. In 1980 Lois Arkin began her quest to build permanently affordable housing … Continue reading The Hippie Guide to Conservative Economics
I’m in the process of filming a story about a woman who is opening a new business she’s calling the Locastore. Her goal is to provide a high quality alternative to corporate chain convenience stores that can be replicated and scaled up in many other rural communities. She will only be selling items … Continue reading The $100,000 roadside produce stand
Meet Alek and Anjali and their self-built mortgage-free Tiny House. They built their home while they were still living in Iowa and then relocated to northern California. They now live quite comfortably in the large back garden of a conventional home in exchange for maintaining the landscape. Anjali was determined to attend graduate school and … Continue reading Alek and Anjali’s Tiny House
Granola Shotgun 