Self Sufficient City - Envisioning habitat of the future!

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and the technology company HP have developed an international contest with the idea of "self-sufficient city." It is an invitation to reflect on how we will live in the near future in the light of the social, cultural and technological changes in which we are immersed. This publication presents the projects of the 107 finalists between 708 participant proposals. From connected metropolises, eco neighbourhoods, self-sufficient buildings, intelligent homes or any other proposal for a short, medium or long-term project such as the winning ones: "HURBS" proposed by Sergio Castillo Tello and María Hernández Enríquez from Spain and "WATER FUEL" by Rychiee Espinosa and Seth Mcdowell from the United States.

 

ISBN 9788492861330 

Uitgever Actar, 2010

 

From City to Farm - Becoming Self Sufficient

Becoming self-sufficient is not only the prudent thing to do, but it is also a rewarding journey full of adventure and hope, that lasts a lifetime and provides a sense of accomplishment that nothing else quite compares to. Being able to go out your back door and pick fresh tomatoes that you have grown yourself instead of going to the nearest grocery store for veggies that have traveled for miles across country is a source of pride for us country folk.

So, let’s talk about this exciting adventure, but before we do, I would like you to think about this:

What if you woke up in the morning to discover that your bank account had been wiped out, your cupboard contained food for only a week or so, the electric bill was due as well as the mortgage payment, car payment, and credit card bills? What do you do?

The time to think about such things is before they happen, when you have time to learn new skills and prepare. Therefore, let’s discuss the path to self-sufficiency, one step at a time.

Food, shelter, water, and heat. We cannot do without these four things.

Therefore, learn to grow your own food now, as there is a learning curve that cannot be mastered overnight. If you are in an apartment, start growing tomatoes in upside down containers and hang them in front of a window. Plant herbs in pots and create trellises on your patio for squash. Soon, you will start to get the hang of it, and might even notice that your thumbs are getting a bit green. Learn the basics of food storage, as you will need these skills to keep your stored food from going bad. (I’ll give you some easy-to-use tips in my next article.)

Next, plan for a shelter where you can live without a mortgage payment or an electric bill. With the economy the way it is, land and home prices are going down. Try to get a piece of property with enough land to grow and store at least a year’s supply of food and to house a goat and some chickens or geese. Goat milk is highly nutritional, and you can make cheese from it. Chickens and geese will provide you with a daily supply of fresh eggs.

This property should either have a well that is shallow enough to use a solar water pump, or have a surface water supply. Good soil is a plus, but you can always condition the soil with organic matter such as manure, cut vegetation, and leftover veggies from the table. Raised garden beds are excellent for containing good soil.

Plan to go off the grid with a free energy source such as solar or wind power, as this will supply you with unlimited free energy without a monthly bill.

Once your home is hooked up to a free energy source, your heating and cooling issues are taken care of. The amount of electricity you can use depends on the number of solar panels you have, your battery back-up system, and/or the size of your wind generator.

Some other things you can do to prepare are:

Purchase a used vehicle and pay cash. You now have a car without payments.

Pay off your credit cards. Late payments incur charges that will quickly lead to an increase in the balance of your loan that will become impossible to deal with.

The time to prepare to become self-sufficient is now, before a crisis hits. We need to become more independent and wean ourselves from going to the grocery store every other day and shopping for things we simply cannot afford. By becoming more self-sufficient, we not only become healthier and stronger, but better prepared to meet any financial crisis.

By Barbara H. Peterson 05/26/2009

[Note: Barbara lives on a small ranch in Oregon with her husband, where they raise geese, chickens, horses, Oggie Dog, a variety of cats, and an opinionated Macaw named Rita. Barbara believes that self-sufficiency and localization of food sources is necessary to survive the coming depression. To this end, she hopes that sharing information with others of like mind will lead to a brighter future where people reach out to each other andform small communities in which food is grown locally, and trade is established between neighbors. For more of Barbara’s tips on sustainable living, click here now - http://survivingthemiddleclasscrash.wordpress.com/]

Small Town Creates Its Own Self-Sufficient Way of Life

Pittsboro, N.C., is a small southern community with big ideas. Instead of depending on government or big business to boost its economy, town residents have managed to work things out at the local level and become small business success stories in the process. Pittsboro feeds, houses, fuels and entertains itself -- proving that a small, thriving economy is still possible in a globalized world. Faiza Elmasry reports.

Pittsboro is what businessman and writer Lyle Estill calls home.

"It's about 2,500 people that live in a wooded, rural area of North Carolina," he says. "It's a place where I've been living and doing business for the past 18 years."

Estill is in the energy business -- from wind to solar to hydropower. These projects, he says, meet local needs and contribute to developing his town's economy.

"When you think of economic [development] strategies, it's always based on big," he says. "So [people say,] 'When we get a new automobile plant or when we get a major factory, we'll be fine.' In the meantime, while we wait for those factories to come along or while we watch them close, there is an alternative. That is the economy that's based on small business and on trading amongst ourselves."

In his book, Small is Possible: Life in a Local Economy, Estill explains how people in his town decided to become a self-sufficient community.

"One of the good stories about that would be Chatham Marketplace, which is our co-op grocery store," he says. "Basically, a group of people got together and passed the hat and [put] together a grocery store. It's full of food that comes off the local farms. It's a place where we trade with one another and keep ourselves fed on local food. It is now sort of the centerpiece of our community, or one of them."

Estill says in Pittsboro, bank tellers recognize customers' voices over the phone and doctors still make house calls. The town, he says, even has its own entertainment events.

"We have the Shakori Festival of Music and Dance that came to town," he says. "They took an old farm and turned it into a venue for music and dance. That happens a couple of times a year. I'd say live music is probably at the core of entertaining ourselves. We have bands on the Bynum General Store's front porch on Saturday nights."

The community college has become a place where residents can learn from one another.

"Our community college sort of acts like our canvas, so that if you have a subject that you are passionate about and you want to teach about it, you can go down there and start teaching," he says. "That means that we've had a number of innovative programs."

Piedmont Biofuels Co-op started as one of those programs. Rachel Burton is one of the founders.

"It was a course that was developed by myself and another co-founder, Leif Rorer, at our community college," she says. "Lyle [Estill] was one of the first students in that class. The three of us, after the class was finished, continued to make biodiesel in his back yard."

Over the last five years, she says, Piedmont Biofuels has grown significantly.

"We started with a handful, less than 10 people that were interested in making their own fuel," Burton says. "We [now] have over 500, close to 600 co-op members that are fueling at eight different locations across central North Carolina. Mainly what we do is we collect waste vegetable oil or any type of fat that we can convert into biodiesel. We chemically modify waste vegetable oil or animal fat into what is biodiesel. It's a clean, renewable diesel-fuel replacement."

Longtime resident Barbara Lorie, who has lived in Pittsboro since 1958, says she is really proud of her community.

"This county is, in my opinion, unique in the kinds of people who have found their way here, following that pattern of living in an environmentally sound way," she says. "Here in Catham County, we have more organic farmers than almost any other county in the state. One of the primary organizations we have here, the Haw River Assembly, is taking care of a whole river. Their objective is to clean up this whole river. Is that not incredible?"

Estill says what his town has done is incredible, but it could easily be replicated in other communities around the world.

"Food would be a good example, eating locally," he says. "Most of us can eat a local diet, if we try. If we don't care, we don't pay any attention to it. Then we just eat what hits our plate. By putting just a little bit of intention into what to eat, we can cut the number of miles that that food travels, and you can get down to a relationship with the grower in any city, big or small. So, I think the localization of an economy is a state of mind that can be done anywhere."

As Estill explains in Small is Possible, it all starts when people make a conscious choice about how they want to live their life. Then they can create their own small businesses, trade goods and services among themselves and help their local economies grow and flourish.