Simon FormanTEDx talk on bio-mimetic city design. "It's a start."
YouTube
Dror Benshetrit (awesome name) makes a important point (at 9:25):
> The problem is that over the next 20 years we are doubling the land coverage [of cities]. And those plans are on the drawing table, right now. So, if you and I think that it's worth testing, and thinking differently, about the second half of the world's built environment, we have to act now. This is a call to action.
In the next two decades we will build the "second half" of cities!
Ecology Action's GROW BIOINTENSIVE® system puts a "floor" of 470m² (5000 ft²) per adult for sustainable food production:
> Ecology Action of the Mid-Peninsula has been a small 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization since 1971.
> ...we have been working for 50 years to develop an elegant, small-scale agricultural system ... that when practiced correctly, nurtures healthy soil fertility, produces high yields, conserves resources and can be used successfully by almost everyone.
http://growbiointensive.org/
Ecology Action: Home
Ecology Action is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Using the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method, we have been teaching people better feed themselves while building and preserving the soil and conserving resources for 40 years. Explore our website and find information on GROW BIOINTENSIVE projects, workshops, tours, books, videos, free learning tools, and more!
So for an ecologically harmonious city each person has to have a connection somehow to those 470m²+, and ideally it shouldn't be a long involved connection requiring lots of transportation of material.
We don't want to give up large scale ag entirely (it would probably be impossible anyway.)
So these new cities we are about to build...
Let's minimize "embodied energy". Build big geodesic domes and then under them use tents.
The combination of domes and tents is a cheap way to turn raw land into comfortable neo-urban neighborhoods.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embodied_energy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic_domes
We want recirculating water systems: purify water through John Todd-style "living machines", managed ecosystems that produce food while they clean the water.
"John Todd Living Machines Lecture" (The camera work isn't great— my god pull back from his face you are too close —but it's fascinating and important material!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wojrOpH5O7M
The OG New Alchemy Institute stuff has been made available here: https://newalchemists.net/
John Todd Living Machines Lecture
Imagine swimming in a lake (with fish!) that is so clean you can drink from it.
Gross?
Cool?
Both.
Poll ended at .
Use a modified Miyawaki Method to convert wasteland rapidly into food forest. (Modified by e.g. #Permaculture, Syntropic agroforestry, et. al.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyawaki_method
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntropic_agriculture#Syntropic_systems
(Both "food forest" and "Syntropic agriculture" redirect to Agroforestry, WP editor hijinks. At least "Permaculture" still rates its own page.)
As the neighborhood design is stabilized we can literally make it concrete with geo-polymer air-crete (foamed concrete).
Christopher Alexander imaged people using foamed concrete to build the buildings they designed (in situ) with his Pattern Language.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircrete
So that's the plan: build cheap, comfortable, ecologically harmonious neighborhoods and then rent/sell/give them to people. "And then I don't care what you do."
I'm bootstrapping right now. I've got twenty acres zoned ag not residential, but a few people can live there if they are also working on the ag.
The final piece of the puzzle is to go "second order" and make a "machine" to make more of these. Essentially a specialized vertically integrated real estate development company, sort of.