Community Design and Planning

1
Community Design and Planning

• Working towards sustainability through
  design-thinking
• and community participation.

2
Spatial Patterns and Design Concepts

• The following spatial patterns are ones we have
  observed and design concepts we use in our work.
• Assumptions are that
• We need to be re-constructing our patterns of
  habitation,
• transportation, energy, water, waste, and food
  systems

• We believe individual empowerment and
  reconnection to place leads to transformation and
  healing for Earth
• People do care and have an amazing strength
  of vision if given the chance to be heard

3
Strengthening the Center
Strengthening the Center comes from defining the
strengths of a community and enhancing that
identify, that confluence of energy, and forming
a unique and special place.

• Patterns and Designs
• Geological forms
• Climatic conditions
• Layers of history
• Cultural focal points
• Community gathering places
• Special places
• Mix of uses and activities, nodes of diversity
• Voids gaps to infill
• Slow Streets

4
Holding the Edge

• Defining the edge
• Using gateways
• Establishing buffers (critical edges or places)
• Protecting viewsheds, ridgelines, sacred places
• Allowing for agricultural health
• Preserving wild lands
• Using land trusts models

5
Circulation

• Movement flow (people)
• Entrance
• Traffic Calming
• Intersections
• Roads, paths, trails
• Water
• Air, wind
• Earth, Waste
• Sun Paths

6
Connectivity

• Connectivity is the radiating out from the
  centerthe links and connections of a town to its
  surrounding neighbors and larger bio-region its
  intricate connection to the network of life

We see it as Land formations Weather
Patterns Wildlife Corridors Waterways,
watersheds Telecommunications Power grid (energy
production and distribution) Transportation
systems Movement of people and history
7
Reconnecting to Nature

• Understanding habitats and corridors
• Daylighting streams and other buried waterways
• Understanding your watershed
• Living with wildlife
• Building community gardens and growing food
• Living machines for wastewater recycling
• Solar strategies for heating and energy
• Wind harnessing for ventilation and cooling
• Rainwater catchment
• Building materials methods

8
VDIs Guiding Principles

• Community design is a collaborative planning
  process with the immediate goal of improving the
  quality of life for all community members of the
  ecosystemfrom the smallest insects to us humans
  and from the waterways to the skies above.
• Effective community design creates economic
  opportunities for local residents at different
  scales of interestfrom global connections to
  bioregional needs and immediate solutions.
• Sustainable community planning and design depends
  on alternative forms of energy and
  transportation. Lifestyle patterns, consumption
  habits, and production technologies change to
  accommodate closing the loop and living with a
  no-waste policy.
• Sustainable community design allows for
  protection of open space, regeneration of native
  vegetation, stormwater mitigation, increased
  green space, local food production at various
  scales, and sensitivity to public-private zones.
• When successful community design increases
  community knowledge of local history, cultural
  landscape, and sacred ground.

9

Resources
Vermont Design Institute (VDI) promotes
sustainable community development and
problem-solving through holistic design and
planning.
Groundswell is a hands-on resource monograph
published by VDI for empowering community
involvement in the visioning and designing of
their own communities. It includes a discussion
of types of spaces and place-making, an
introductory design vocabulary, sustainability
guidelines, and other resources.