The Village Forum

The VillageTown: Build for The Good Life

Keynote VideoVillageTown: a town of many villages.

The village is the most supportive form of habitat, a face-to-face community of about 500. But for a local economy to thrive, one needs a community of five to 10,000 people. So build a VillageTown, with 10-20 village clusters, where everything is within a ten minute walk & everyone works within. This simple idea solves a host of today's problems and provides a higher quality of life for all ages & stages of life.

 
Why should we build communities?

When several villages are united into a single complete community, large enough to be nearly self sufficient, the VillageTown comes into existence, originating in the bare needs of life and continuing for the sake of what Aristotle called the good life and which Jefferson described as Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness... the satisfaction of our four basic social desires:
  • Conviviality
  • Citizenship
  • Artistic & Intellectual growth
  • Spiritual development & fulfilment
 
There's so much more possible in life

To put romance back in life, create proximity and foster enchantment.Create a vibrant, dynamic place with many different things happening - all the time, every day. Build a stong diverse local economy. Make it affordable. Provide for all ages & stages of life. Walk from one village to another, each with its own character derived from the people who live there... like walking from one culture to another. Enrich life. 

 
What's the challenge?

We all sense that something has gone terribly wrong with our communities. Hamlets and cities, slums and suburbs all lack a sense of cohesion. Not only is there no centre there – there is no there there.     Victor Papanek

Today, we build communities for all the wrong reasons. After WW-II we designed suburbs to fuel economic growth. Suburbs were built to sell cars. Now, facing fears for the environment we will design communities to be carbon neutral. In all these reactive plans, we forget about the needs and aspirations of individuals and society. There is a better way: 
VillageTowns - Build your Village 
click here to view Overview video
 


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