Reburbia

The finalists of the Reburbia competition jointly held by Inhabitat and Dwell magazine were announced last week. The competition aimed at finding innovative ways of retrofitting suburbia and transforming the legacy of sprawl in a sustainable way. I have made a short list of some entries that particularly caught my attention:

Big box agriculture: A productive suburb

Lots of entries looked at converting vacant big box stores into urban farming centers combining farming, retail and dining such as in this entry by Forrest Fulton:

Big Box Stores Transformed into Biofuel Generators

Here, the cheap, flat, modular space networked into national and state highway systems that disused big box stores offer is used for the production of biofuels. Biofuel production would be produced by algae to the tune of over 100,000 gallons a year for the average big box store.

Urban Sprawl Repair Kit: Repairing The Urban Fabric

The entry currently winning the popular vote is an Urban Sprawl Repair Kit by Galina Tahchieva that consists of a series of simple infill techniques for retrofitting the 5 building prototypes that define Suburbia.

puRE: Transforming Swimming Pools into Water Treatment Plants

Pure by Craig England looks at transforming swimming pools into water treatment plants and integrates wastewater treatment, food production, power generation, and community infrastructure all-in-one! Utilizing the principles of constructed wetlands, Pure is able to service up to five homes per unit, puRE intakes all household wastewater and outputs clean, potable water for all to enjoy.

Unfortunately this proposal leaves no opportunity for using the swimming pool for bathing, however I am very intrigued about the possibility of combining the two.

Regenerative Suburban Median

The last project I wished to mention was the Regenerative Suburban Median by Brian Alessi. This entry ties in with something I heard during a recent lecture by the Brisbane landscape architect John Mongard. He pointed out that in many suburban areas, the only space available to be reclaimed for community use was asphalt. In the Regenerative Suburban Median, part of the street is reclaimed to create a median that treats gray water and sewage, produces agriculture, provides a platform for small scale commercial activity and slows down automobile traffic to promote increased pedestrian activity and social interaction within the neighborhood.

:: All images via Reburbia