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Builders create suburbs with downtown appeal
Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY
If these new, walking-friendly ‘boomburbs’ had mass transit, ‘it would be the cherry on top’
Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is typical of dozens of developments sprouting along the nation’s light-rail lines and near subway stations: stores, theaters, restaurants, offices and housing connected by sidewalks to mimic a walkable urban neighborhood.
Just one thing is missing: transit.
There is no light rail or subway in Rancho Cucamonga, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles. Victoria Gardens is typical of most Southern California developments: It’s on one freeway and next to another.
Transit-oriented developments are so popular with residents who crave the opportunity to live in a walkable community that at least a dozen cities and suburbs across the USA are embracing the concept – even if they don’t have rail.
“I call it transit-ready development,” says Robert Lang, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech and author of Boomburbs, a study of large and fast-growing suburbs where many of these centers are appearing. “It’s a mixed-use lifestyle center with high-density housing that looks like it should be with light rail but isn’t.”
(11 June 2007)
Building the future: Community
Staff, The Guardian
Guardian architecture critic Jonathan Glancey visits the Jubilee Library in Brighton, a welcoming building with a sense of occasion and atmosphere. It is one of a new generation of public buildings combining the needs of the community with environmental consciousness.
Since the library opened, visitor numbers and book loans have tripled – as Jonathan Glancey says: ‘The blue-tiled, glass-fronted building, which faces the sea, is crisp, simple, translucent, energy-efficient – and packs a surprising architectural punch.’
It was named winner of the Prime Minister’s Better Public Buildings Award in 2005 and received the first ever Ethical Award for Best Building of the Year from The Observer in 2006. Designed by Bennetts Associates Architects in association with Lomax Cassidy & Edwards, the library consumes as much energy as a three bedroom house, relies on local climatic conditions and can recycle rainwater, making it one of the country’s most energy-efficient public buildings.
(9 June 2007)
Contributor AC writes:
Shows how local government can lead the way in designing architecturally striking and popular, fit-for-purpose buildings that incorporate cutting-edge passive technology to slash energy usage.
Check out the excellent video at the original.
Building the Future: Home
Staffn Guardian
The Tree House in Clapham is a beautifully executed exercise in sustainable building. Inspired by Alvar Aalto’s Villa Mairea the house takes the tree which occupies the site as an integral part of the design and works in sympathy with it.
The frame is timber, its insulation is made from compressed newspaper, the stairway is supported by tree trunks, and the floors, window frames and cladding are all reclaimed wood.
By controlling demand (the house uses one seventh of an average house’s energy) and generating all power on site, heat is drawn from a ground pump, electricity and hot water from the solar panels on the roof, the owners have yet to receive a utility bill. Technology has enabled them to find a more natural way of living by connecting them more closely to their surroundings and to the elements.
(9 June 2007)
Contributor AC writes:
Check the original for a slick video showing the proud owner waxing lyrical about his new green pad. It also shows the ground-source heat pump used to power this one-off plus-energy house. This may be the designer end of the market in green homes but if it shows that it’s possible to make money from your home, it might even encourage some of the mass-market builders to follow suit. Interestingly, the sponsor is Zurich Financial Services, an insurance company.
Related from the Guardian: First zero-carbon home unveiled Contributor AC writes:
Zero-carbon housing going mainstream, not a moment too soon, with encouragement from the UK government.
