I lived in Silicon Valley for 6 years, developing software, and then lived in a real community of 3,000 souls in a larger town of 11,000 in the American Midwest, building timber homes. I’ve a good feeling for just how much (i.e. how little) high tech is needed to create a strong sense of community, and of living – very affordably – close to nature.
There is a wonderful (and, to be fair, slightly strange and unusual) series of Russian books ’The Ringing Cedars of Russia’ by Vladimir Megré, which has as its central thesis the idea of creating a sustainable civilisation supporting higher human consciousness by building ecovillages around our cities on low cost (even free) land, which very specifically including ex-offenders, homeless people and refugees. The challenge is to make it practical – to find clear steps.
10 years ago I helped create a vision of sustainable communities building on the Blair Government’s Egan Review of Sustainable Communities. This led into two sets of ecobuild housing – first some code level 4 timber apartments that were immediately used to house ex-offenders (and with little extra intervention cut reoffending rates over 40%) and then a terrace of Modcell straw tech homes which were the first Council of Mortgage lender approved straw homes, and allowed a bridge to a neater form of straw build.
Truly affordable housing will create local economic transformation everywhere it happens – freeing up a big chunk of everyone’s income for discretionary spending, and to live better lives.