Sustainable Neighborhoods in Santa Fe

The times call for a comprehensive overhaul of our suburban lifestyle and you’re invited to join with fellow innovators, designers, architects, engineers, and enthusiasts to brainstorm efficient, elegant, and ingenious possibilities for well-lived, sustainable futures! If you are looking to live in a sustainable neighborhood, you too are invited to fill out the survey, and be a part of a focus group or the design group that will work …

Small is Beautiful-Life at the Crossroads

The times call for a comprehensive overhaul of our suburban lifestyle and you’re invited to join with fellow innovators, designers, architects, engineers, and enthusiasts to brainstorm efficient, elegant, and ingenious possibilities for well-lived, sustainable futures! If you are looking to live in a sustainable neighborhood, you too are invited to the next session April 27-28 at the Solar Fiesta. This event …

Onsite, Integrated Energy, Food, Water, and Solid Waste Design Workshop

  You’re invited to help design localized, integrated food and utility systems on March 3rd, 2013!  Amory Lovins and the Rocky Mountain Institute have been redesigning industrial facilities to increase energy efficiency by 90%!  Can We, here in Santa Fe, capture similar savings by designing sustainable neighborhoods that integrate and localize energy,  water, food , and solid waste streams? I’ve chosen a mixed-use, common courtyard as a starting point for a prototype neighborhood, similar to …

Designing Your Well-Lived Future

Ready for Something Other Than Suburbia?  “I’m tired of living alone.” “We just would like to live together and share a house. We’re not lovers; we need two master suites. “I’m fine by myself with breakfast and lunch. At 4:30 though, I need community.” These are a few of the comments of exasperation from singles we’ve heard over the years. …

Projects for the Center for Innovation and Sustainability

I’m proposing a Center for Innovation and Sustainability (CIS), an ongoing Think and Do Tank facility to harness our genius, wisdom and caring to create local market-driven sustainable products and services. With deep collaboration we can create living examples of desirable neighborhoods where less is more – where lowered consumption from a systems-integrated-design approach creates a higher quality of life and affordable lifestyles. …

A Fabrication Lab Turns Ideas into Products and Services

A Fab Lab is a collection of tools with which we can forge an empowering, high quality,  sustainable way of life.  Just about very aspect of our lifestyle is in need of an upgrade. Short vision and short term profits with “externalities” have turned into one big ponzi scheme. We’ve spent the last 60-70 years experimenting with the most expensive real estate development in …

Design Your Dream

What is the Most Important to you when designing your dream of a Sustainable neighborhood ? What are the great things you wish were happening within a convenient walk? What floor plan arrangements and shared amenities would fit your needs? Maybe a deeply affordability lifestyle with a place to play music on a Friday night? This is a totally open …

What do Two Young Professionals, a Wine Bar, a Twelve-step Program, and a Day Care Center Have in Common?

The answer to the above riddle is… a well-designed house with a flexible floor plan that meets the needs of the current and future residents.  Change, flexibility, affordability, and convenience together spell a thriving, resilient, and sustainable future!  The job before us is nothing short of a reinvention of the America Dream. Here’s some ideas to consider as you’re designing  your dream …

A Network of Key Influencers

How do we go about creating the Paradigm shift; innovating and collaborating to bring sustainable neighborhoods to the market?  A friend told me of the “Network of Key Influencers” process practiced by Susan Davis since the 1970s and it sounded like just the ticket! Susan begins by gathering peer recommendations so the Network will be made up of a talented …