I get many updates about various events in the Bay Area and around the world to promote ecological consciousness. However, one about a emerging ecovillage called Oakmass Village struck me, particularly since it is the first time I ever heard of a ecovillage located in a former mobile home park. I am inspired by their approach and so I have taken some of their ideas from a announcement about their presentation they are today from 6;30-9:30 at the Green City Gallery in Berkeley and evolved there below.
Of possible relevance is a recent blog post I did about a colleague Steve Bosserman who is working on a wiki to explore the development of kits to build ecologically responsible Park Homes which he calls Micro-Houses (park homes like mobile homes are pre-assembled in manufacturing facilities).
Also noteworthy in July they posted a job opening at the Regenerative Design website (no deadline date for applying). The Oakmoss Village website is here but I did not much there. This seems to indicate that the project is still relatively early in the development stage.
Planning for Adversity:
A major premise of the project is that we have to build sustainable human habitats because there is increasing evidence that human induced changes may lead to a more adverse climate (in the broadest sense of the word):
- Fuel and supplies will be more expensive and thus there’s a need to adapt to renewable, energy efficient and more self-reliant habitats;
- Various changes will increase climate adversity so we need to design for adversity in how we live and plan for the future;
- Economic instability may increase the economic risk for more sustainably developed projects as the costs of high quality green business services become unrealistically expensive in a adverse economy;
- Disruptions in the global economy may cause supply line disruptions that makes increased self-reliance a hedge against that potential risks as mentioned in 3.
The core idea seems to be that we need to be more clever about making use of the limited resources. We also need to learn to use existing resources to create the paradigm shift as an alternative to a total rebuild of the built environment. However the question is how much of the existing infrastructure be viably salvaged and made into a transitional sustainable built environment?
That above question about the feasibility of retrofitting the existing built environment applies especially in the zone of modern development called suburban sprawl applies especially to Mobile Homes. The project is ambitious not just because it is visionary and innovative at how they seek to take the ecovillage development to new models that make increase its relevance to the mainstream modern built environment but also because mobile homes in many respects are the most unsustainable because of the cheap and substandard materials used. To me the question that will ultimately determine the viability of this project is: what percentage of the infrastructure of a mobile home can be realistic salvaged and retrofitted.
There are various issues that need to be considered in retrofitting a mobile home:
- Mobile homes are notorious for having Indoor Air Emissions/pollutants such as Formaldehyde;
- Constructed using flimsy materials that make them easy prey for tornados and high winds;
- Materials used in construction also are cheaply made (therefore they have a very limited product lifecycle) and often use the most unsustainable building products.
Social Enterprise Approach
I use the term social enterprise to describe “blended ventures” that combine aspects of non and for profit entities. Some refer this hybrid as “for benefit corporations”. Specifically I like how they developed a blended approach, seeing the project as a “model for profitable sustainable reengineering of rural and urban mobile home parks, residential neighborhoods and small towns.”
Transforming a mobile home park into a prosperous sustainable community is not a normal ecovillage plan. Oakmoss Village appears to be attempting to address climate change and peak oil challenges from a unique perspective using already existing housing and seeking to reconfigure that so that it is more sustainable more, “while also generating prosperity for the community and profits for the developers.”
To me this is in line with the thinking that ecovillages have to be more focused on how to replicate and expand to the mainstream society. This means on some level embracing existing infrastructure social, political, economic and physical while retaining the core alternative message of sustainability. This is the art of compromise that it seems progressives have not refined as of yet.
Key issues for these visionary eco-community developers include:
- Localizing production of many community goods and services;
- Reducing fossil fuel consumption;
- Lowering household and community carbon footprints;
- Creating village businesses and green collar jobs;
- Transforming renters into owners.
Project will feature:
- Affordable green homes;
- Low-cost green building system;
- Conversion of septic evaporation ponds into bio marsh-pond system;
- Integration of commercial SPIN farm plots into residential parcels;
- Solar thermal power plant for community heat, cooling and electricity;
- Community electric shuttle;
- Green home financing strategies;
- Edible landscaping and creek repair.
