| Model Green City: Treasure Island Starts from Scratch |
|
|
| Written by Joshua Liberles | |||||
| Sunday, 03 February 2008 | |||||
|
City streets will be reoriented to allow buildings to get the maximum benefit from solar gain and shelter from the prevailing winds. All of the buildings will achieve LEED Gold Certification status. Rooftop solar panels, wind turbines, transparent photovoltaic skins over glass, and possibly a biogas generator at the wastewater plant will provide the community’s power. A large Living Machine will treat waste water with bacteria in wetland cells, allowing grey and black water to be recycled. Housing density will increase from eight to 75 units per acre, allowing developers to double the amount of land left as open space while accommodating five times as many people. I’ve lived in the Bay Area; the addition of a bike lane across the Bay Bridge is huge news. When I lived in the East Bay and worked as a bike courier in SF, the only way across was to load your bike onto an infrequently run shuttle van. Bikes weren’t allowed on BART during peak commute hours. This addition will benefit many more people than just future island residents.
A new ferry route will transport island residents to downtown San Francisco in ten minutes. Cars are being phased out in the plans for this super-eco island. Housing won’t come equipped with parking spaces, and cars won’t be allowed on most of the island. Instead, narrower streets will be restricted to bicycles and a shuttle. Cities largely deserve their reputation as dingy, polluting centers of population. As Popular Mechanics reports, over half of the world’s people live in cities, they consume 75% of the resources and account for most of our greenhouse gases. However, by increasing the density of our communities, we’re able to leave more of the planet as undeveloped pristine land and decrease our shared footprint. Cities make environmental sense – especially when properly designed. Biking, walking, and mass transit become the obvious choices. Some of the leftover room can be used to grow the community’s food, decreasing “food miles” – as is the plan for Treasure Island. Photos via flickr by Tolka Rover and omniNate. Comments (2)
socialscientist
said:
|
|||||
 |
They should try to design it with no cars at all. |
 |
Latest Model Cars Today most of the car models that are available elsewhere are also available in world http://latestmodelcarsever.blogspot.com/ |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Cars are the most inconvenient convenience we have. We're required to have them, but increasingly, we dislike them. At Carectomy, we're trying to figure out how to extract cars from people.
The operation is a little bit painful, but life afterward is much more awesome. If you're interested in carectomies, sign up to our newsletter, or subscribe our RSS feed below.
Subscribe to this comment's feed