I came across the work of Claude Lewenz at my mums cousins place in Waiheke, New Zealand. We went to a Saturday morning market, local food, plenty of people making stuff, lots of books and lots of conversationon futures, lots of practical observations and strategies shared to make small but important changes to life. It is not an easy read as the temptation to read and say 'yes but' is great, however, it is a stimulating set of ideas, it frames a way forward and it gives a possible routemap to the future.
I particularly like the idea of 'patterns' which can be taken from one situation and repeated, niched to locally defined needs into other places.
Claude's work has been to seek human scale, practical and rewarding ways of living together.
He spent 25 years asking questions to
establish a detailed framework for people who focus on developing
human habitat. Suburbs don’t work because they were invented to
sell cars, not to provide a great place to live. Now that the era of
cheap oil is over, building more suburbia, malls and more car parks,
where one must drive to accomplish the mundane chores of daily
life, is not only boring, it’s not smart.
None of the ideas Lewenz puts forward are new. What he
did was to collect good ideas (called patterns) from all over the
world, and weave the best into a lucid plan.
From the book description...
Th e Parallel Village, as it is called, provides a home for 5,000
to 10,000 people, in a medium-density design of attached buildings
in which there are no cars within the village walls; everything
– home, workplaces, shops, schooling and recreation – is within
a ten-minute walk… just as it was before cars were invented. What
makes this possible is a fundamental shift in technology where one
can, once again, have a local economy that can not only compete
with 20th century sprawl-economies, but outperform them. The
secret ingredient of the parallel village is providing for a robust,
durable local economy while creating a physical environment
with qualities that a broad cross-section of people crave… one with
flavour, beauty, enrichment, stimulation and security.
The parallel village needs to be within two hours of an urban
centre to connect with overnight delivery and airlines. This means
one may select locations beyond the suburban ring, because the
village is not dependent on the economic engine of suburban
sprawl. Indeed the best locations will be in places of bucolic beauty
where the village signs contracts with surrounding farmers both to
provide most of its food and to remain permanently as farms.
To provide a culturally-enriched environment that never gets
boring, one forms the parallel village around neighbourhood plazas,
perhaps twenty or thirty of them in each village, where the plaza
hosts shops, cafés, outdoor play space for children, and on
each one an artists’ guild hall where the developer funds the presence
of what Dr. Richard Florida calls the creative class. One hall hosts
musicians, another actors or writers; a parallel real estate market
assures they can never be forced out when unrestricted home prices
rise (as they will because the amenities are so attractive).
To provide security, elder housing assures old people they
never have to leave their community, even when they become
infirm. With no cars to injure the children, the streets become
safe to play and parents and less stress on the family: in village
environments, the whole community keeps an eye on the young.
In a local economy 20% of the workers sell local to global,
they are money importers. e remaining 80% sell local to local,
and Lewenz proposes systems to secure a money-turn of 5x.
All-in-all, it’s a smart use of timeless proven models, systems
and patterns. Lewenz changes the intent. Instead of designing a
world where people are rst and foremost discontent consumers, the
village intent proposes a life where quality of life – social, economic, cultural, environment and spiritual well-being.
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