Design Guidelines: Village Housing

Village and Land Patterns Planning a Healthy Community Neighborhood Scale Residential Cluster

Neighborhood Scale

Respond to climate: Buildings need to respond to climate in non-invasive ways. Pay attention to topography, wind, storm (rain, snow, sand), vegetation, and sun orientation; design with local climate in mind to allow for the most effective means of climate control. Maintain view corridors for all to enjoy.

Create safe and healthy places: Think in terms of walkable distances inhabited with familiar faces, slow traffic, and local schools. Hold neighborhood activities, support bike lanes for commuters, add recreation paths for joggers and children, create butterfly gardens, etc. Build with physical relationships to the street and neighbors in mind.

Connect to food production: Allow for composting programs, rain gardens, community food production, support of local farmers, town forests, wood lots, berry farms, etc. Develop a connection with these whether part of the project land or the local economy.

Reduce auto-dependence: Build patterns of development which support public transport and are at walkable scales. Buildings, roads, infrastructure, services—all need to support each other at a human scale to reduce auto-dependence. Distance, size, and detail are relevant to creating at this slower scale.