A Case for Demonstration Projects.

Demonstrations on how to make these sustainable modifications in an affordable, plausible and inspiring way are unfortunately not widely available. Beyond basic eco-retrofitting, where are the new models of suburban dwelling that are built with pollution, water shortage, waste equals food, solar energy, large middle class populations, radical homemaking (men and women who have chosen to make family, community, social justice and the health of the planet the governing principles of their lives), globalization, affordability and live/work/play in mind? Again we lack the tactile demonstrations. There are no newly conceived prototypes in our neighborhoods that we can experience; that we can touch, feel and breathe in how a new model of suburban life might be like.

Nasser claims in USA Today (2008) that, “For good or bad, the USA's suburbs have become a living laboratory for the world. Developing countries contending with explosive population growth and economic expansion are looking here for hints about how to manage growing cities”. Perhaps suburban neighborhoods could use that global influence and export American designs that take into account the constrictions and realities of the 21^st Century world? Much-needed local demonstrations could be models for communities around the globe, having an impact on global warming at both the local and global scale.

Solutions in Suburbia

Anne R. Beer, Environmental Planner and Professor Emeritus of University of Sheffield, explains in her discussion paper prepared for the European Network on Urban Density and Green Structure (1998) that:

A city's suburban area (here defined as low to middle density housing with gardens) contains a considerable proportion of land, which is not built over or sealed in any way (mainly within private gardens). This land area can, through the straightforward design and application of locally appropriate regenerative design solutions at the level of the individual property, be used to:

· enhance biodiversity

· process, through composting, biodegradable waste

· hold and collect water from roofs and sealed surfaces to be used for gardens and car-washes

· reduce heat loss by increased use of climbing plants which create a "pocket of still air" next to house walls

When communities work together more elaborate regenerative design solutions can be developed at a neighborhood level, which can also be developed to maximize the potential of the open surface areas within suburban development. For example, to:

· locate tree-belts to reduce the speed of the wind as it hits the house and, therefore, reduce energy consumption

· manage local surface water flows to reduce the local effects of "flash flooding" from the sealed surfaces and roofs

· create biodiversity "corridors" through housing areas linking a city's more naturalistic open spaces

As opposed to city dwellers, (who are less likely to own their own buildings and who share smaller plots of land with other tenets) suburban homeowners have a unique opportunity to rethink their private property. Solutions to finding clean energy sources, eating locally sourced food, pollution, being resource efficient and handling waste may actually be found in one’s own back and/or front yard. Even the mass amounts of traffic and exhaust pollution caused from millions of people driving to work every day could be cut down within a restaged suburbia.

In Eva Struble’s essay, Global Suburbia Meditations on the World of the ‘Burb (2008) written for an Abington Art Center exhibition she ads that:

As computer/telecom technologies make working from home increasingly feasible, transportation costs soar, and environmental concerns such as air pollution and global warming gain currency, more people than ever will not only live in the suburbs, but will opt to work (and play) locally as well.

Home offices, edible gardens, composts, chickens, grey water systems, solar panels, green roofs and weatherizing are all reasonable modifications that can make the suburban home and lifestyle model significantly more self sufficient and sustainable. These straightforward, common-sense approaches to some simple tasks will improve the way we use water, deal with waste and reduce energy consumption, while at the same time enhance biodiversity (Beer 1998).

A case for sustainability

A chilling statement from the Orange County Grand Jury provides the context of urgency for why residents need to become more self-sufficient and less wasteful with one of our regions most valuable resources:

The residents of Orange County do not seem to understand the perilous conditions within which they live. The assumption that … we will continue to find new sources of water … is wrong. Those days are over …. Every source of water coming into southern California from afar … is increasingly unreliable.” Further more, the Grand Jury has learned from multiple, expert sources that Orange County’s water supply is very vulnerable to extended outages from catastrophic disruptions and other long-term system failures. These are issues above and beyond concerns of drought. Critical parts of the water supply infrastructure upon which much of California and Orange County relies is in a deplorable state of disrepair and neglect. … Water pricing to pay for the various, necessary, costly supply sources, under even the best-case scenarios, will rise to levels never before seen. In this water-scarce region, consumers are facing dire circumstances regardless of population growth and housing construction. … Public awareness of water supply issues is far below acceptable levels and must be improved (Orange County Grand Jury 2008-2009).

On top of being oblivious to water supply issues, Orange County residents are not widely aware that Southern California is known as one of the smoggiest regions in the nation. California, as a whole, produces roughly 1.4 percent of the world's, and 6.2 percent of the total U.S., greenhouse gases (California Government Climate Change Portal 2010). In Southern California, on-road mobile source emissions are responsible for about 76% of carbon monoxide (CO), as well as 45% of volatile organic compounds (VOC), and 63% of nitrogen oxides (NOx), the precursors to ozone and other components of photochemical smog (South Coast Air Quality Management District, 2003).

Much of the city planning in Orange County developed around the automobile. Unlike most metropolitan areas Orange County is not connected by one large public transit system. Getting to and from any given destination is roughly a twenty-minute drive and the public transportation that there is, is not a time efficient option. Though Orange County is a metropolis built of many large cities, many residents find work outside of the county lines. An average commuter who makes the common daily drive from Orange County to Los Angeles puts roughly 21,120 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air each year. The best scientific evidence is that the increase of this gas in the atmosphere will have a variety of effects on worldwide climate, including increase of average temperature, rising sea level, and increasing weather-related disasters (Texas State Energy Conservation Office 2011). One Southern Californian commuter’s yearly carbon contribution alone would take over 1000 trees to absorb – multiply that by millions of commuters and the problem becomes epic.

California's Climate Change Research Center states that:

During the last 50 years, winter and spring temperatures have been warmer, spring snow levels in lower and mid-elevations have dropped, the snowpack has been melting one to four weeks earlier, and sea levels are projected to rise. Not only will there be a change in average temperatures but there is a projected increase in extreme conditions such as a rising incidence of "heat storms." While these trends will impact all of us, they will have an especially large consequence for California's agricultural industry. The impact on the energy infrastructure in the state is likely to be significant as well. Lower levels of snowpack and associated decreases and changes in the spring runoff will affect hydroelectric generation. A large number of critical power plants are located at sea level along the California coast to take advantage of nearby cooling water and even small rises in sea level will impact those facilities. Increased use of air-conditioning in homes (especially those built further inland and away from coastal areas) creates rising demand for electricity, as well as additional load on transmission and distribution lines to transport power to these areas. The increase in inland home construction also creates a feedback effect in terms of increasing emissions from automobiles traveling greater distances to transport people to work in urban coastal areas (California Government Energy Commission 2009).

Introduction:

In her book Positive Development, Janis Birkeland points out that one of the reasons eco-retrofitting hasn’t widely caught on is that there is a lack of ‘dark green’ demonstration projects that show people how sustainable design can provide more quality of life with less negative environmental and social impacts, at no extra inherent cost (284). NEWBURBIA-Orange County speaks to this very concern with a public suburban-transformation project bound to the restrictions of the Cradle to Cradle design paradigm.

NEWBURBIA-Orange County (NBOC) is a radical architectural and social experiment located in the Orange hills of the infamous “O.C.” The project will challenge traditional building practices, define sustainable solutions and explore the social, mental and physical impacts of living in and building a regenerative home. Throughout construction, NBOC will call on the advice and input of local professionals and neighbors and will incorporate community involvement. Once completed NBOC will open its doors 5 days a week as a showroom for participating (eco-product) sponsors and as an educational center for students of all ages.

The project in its entirety will be documented. A blog will give weekly updates and anecdotes from pre-construction to completion and beyond. Once NBOC breaks ground, the philanthropic production studio GoodMakers Films will shoot in edu-reality format. Media in its many forms will play a huge role in bringing this demonstration to the broadest possible audience with the intent to cause a trend. Licensing will be made available so that suburbs across the country can create their very own NEWBURBIA projects (examples: NBDC or NBNY).

Here is the land that NEWBURBIA will be built upon: