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Free Resources | Land Use | Articles |
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Human Ecology Monograph Series Energy and the Human Environment: Toward Better Neighborhood DesignBy Judy and Michael Corbett Published by: College of Human Ecology, Michigan State University Contents:
Energy costs are eating up an ever-increasing percentage of the family income today. Home utility bills are doubling and tripling. The price of gasoline for the family car continues to rise. The family budget is impacted both directly and indirectly. Almost every product we use, from food to soap, requires energy to produce, transport and market. When the cost of energy rises, it creates an increase in the cost of everything else. Not only are utility rates rising, but crime rates and a sense of alienation also seem to be on the increase. The sense of community, once a valued part of urban and rural life, is rarely found in today's neighborhoods. With neighbors no longer looking out for one another, home burglaries have become commonplace. Teenage drug abuse and pregnancy have increased and other signs of an unhealthy society have emerged. In 1973, we tackled an ambitious project -- to design and build a better place to live, addressing both of these problems by 1) designing a neighborhood which would reduce the amount of energy required to carry out the family's daily activities, and 2) establishing a sense of neighborhood community. Construction of our dream, Village Homes, began in 1975 and the community is now almost fully constructed. Village Homes is a seventy-acre subdivision in Davis, California. It is comprised of about two hundred and forty living units, including twenty apartments in a mixture of price ranges from small, 600 square foot commonwall homes, to 2,800 square foot detached family dwellings. There are also twenty apartment rental units. The neighborhood includes greenbelts behind every house, agricultural areas, a recreation center for neighborhood use, swimming pool, bike paths, playgrounds and professional offices. Eventually a small inn, restaurant, co-op store and some light industry will complete the neighborhood. Reducing Neighborhood Energy Use How do you design a neighborhood community which will significantly reduce energy consumption? To answer that question, one must know how energy is used by a typical family. Some research uncovered for us the following: Family energy use in Davis:
Obviously, the major use of energy for a typical Davis family is automobile transportation. To reduce this expensive dependence on the car, both in Village Homes and to a lesser extent the City of Davis, a concerted effort has been made to promote walking and bicycling. Bicycles and pedestrians are encouraged in Village Homes by the separate bike and pedestrian paths (running through greenbelts) and the circulation pattern. We deliberately made it easier and faster to walk from one area to another in the development rather than drive there. And the whole network is tied into the city bikeway network. Numerous recreational facilities as well as the provision of jobs for members of the community in a commercial center and in agricultural projects have also reduced the dependence of residents on the automobile. Space Heating and Cooling: The Neighborhood Site Plan The second largest use of energy is for space heating and cooling. The very simple steps necessary for solar utilization were among the first made and most vigorously pursued. They included street orientation, lot orientation, setbacks, solar access, and landscaping. Street orientation was probably the most important step. Streets run predominantly east-west to ensure that houses have their major walls on the south and minimal exposure on the east and west. By itself, this "sun tempering" can reduce energy use for heating and cooling twenty to fifty percent. The second modification was of the shape of each lot to make sitelines run north - south even on gently curving streets. This minor and important change was unacceptable to FHA loans and thus conventionally financed all the housing. The third technique used to minimize energy use for heating and cooling involved changes in streetside setback requirements for front, back and side yards. Houses are set comparatively further back from the street when a courtyard is needed to enclose extensive south glass and give privacy. A fence may be as close to the street as ten feet or as close to a parking bay as two feet. The house may be placed within five feet of the back property line. The fourth step involved protection of solar access and essentially established solar rights for residents for the development. Through the design review process and the covenants of the development, exposure to the sun is carefully protected. Before construction begins, a model of each house is made and placed on a large plan of the development. An architectural review board makes certain that buildings do not shade one another. Shading due to vegetation is prevented by special amendment to the Homeowner's Covenants, Code and Restrictions. The next change involved better use of landscaping material. Trees, for example, are carefully chosen for maximum shade in the summer with fast leaf drop in the fall and minimum branching to reduce shading in the winter. Winter exposure is also protected by placing trees predominantly on the east and west of houses where their shade is most helpful for cooling. Finally, the streets were kept as narrow as possible (twenty to twenty-six feet in width) and guest parking was provided in parking bays. The narrow streets and parking bays can be more thoroughly shaded than a wide street, thereby reducing summer heating demands. Neighborhoods in Davis with narrow shaded streets have been shown to be a full ten degrees cooler on hot summer days than neighborhoods with wide, unshaded streets. |
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