The "Living Villages" Concept.

[Crocus]

Hi, At the moment I'm watching a short insert on the telly about the Living Villages concept in the UK. It's all about building energy efficient and environmentally friendly communities, and creating attractive lifestyles. The Wintles in Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire, is the first community/neighbourhood to be designed by Living Villages.

Most probably you are aware of this concept but have a look at the links - I think it's quite an interesting concept:

http://www.livingvillage.com/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4004849.stm

[RebPax]

Hi Crocus, I'm very interested in the idea of making communities more self sufficient and sustainable. In theory at least there are benefits on so many levels; communities forge a closer bond, they are buffered against large economic changes and commodity price fluctuations, and the environment benefits greatly both locally and regionally through more localized production and consumption.

Have you heard about the transition town initiative? It's a community led project that seeks to form local responses to the threats of climate change and the peak oil crisis. The initiative seems to have spread all over the world with some really amazing results. It's incredible what inspired individuals can manage to achieve, and quite comforting to know that we don't have to wait for our governments to take the lead.

[Crocus]

Hi Rebpax, no I haven't. I googled it and it is quite interesting! It's as you say, inspired individuals are sometimes those people who make the differences needed in a community. It sometimes only take a few passionate individuals to get something off the ground, to make others aware of what can be achieved, especially regarding the environment, carbon footprint, green living etc. I think the problem is to get people to become aware of what's happening as far as global warming is concerned.
So many people have a daily struggle just to find something to eat, let alone knowing anything about, or being interested in looking after their environment.

Thanks for letting us know about this interesting initiative.

[dragonfly]

I think they are a brilliant idea especially if it is surounded by countryside like the first one. Leicestershire is planning one but out of the 12,000 homes it is planning to build only 20 will be in a living village. I think most of them will be small houses crammed into big estates. I think any new house should at least have its own garden as it has been show people are healthier who have access to an outside space. Children need a garden to play in and adults to relax in. A lot more people want to grow their own healthy food too.

[RebPax]

That's true, though I'm a bit against new communities being purpose built to be environmentally friendly because they're often quite exclusive and insular, and also because they're spreading the human population into new areas when really we should be focusing on concentrating people in cities in a sustainable way. Making cities more livable and more environmentally friendly means that more of the countryside can be conserved. Also I think building brand new "sustainable" communities makes it seem like being more environmentally friendly living necessitates a huge upheaval and investment, when really huge gains can be made by taking quite small steps and retrofitting existing buildings. Rant rant rant.....

[Crocus]

Another question which came to mind, do you think people will buy into the Living Villages Concept because of wanting to live greener, or perhaps because it might be a trend? x

[RebPax]

I think the danger is that developers have picked up on the existing trend of almost faux environmental concern and market new developments to people who trust that the developer both knows and discloses the true environmental outcomes. After all developers are in it for profit and are not in the business out of the goodness of their hearts. Still, I think there are genuinely concerned, aware and honest people out there who realise that they can combine a vision of environmental sustainability with profit.

[Crocus]

No doubt there's those who are truely interested in and concerned about the environment, who will go to any lengths to try and save and preserve it, but also no doubt there's people out there who are making money from this very fact, making money because of people's honest intentions, willpower, efforts and emotions.