Sustainable Communities: A New Design Synthesis for Cities, Suburbs, and Towns - Hardcover

Sim Van der Ryn is a visionary, author, educator, architect and public leader, and has been described by the New York Times as an "intrepid pioneer on the eco-frontier". For more than 40 years, Sim has been at the forefront of integrating ecological principles into the built environment. He served as California's first energy-conscious State Architect, authored seven influential books, and won numerous honors and awards for his leadership and innovation in architecture & planning. Sim's collaborative approach and meta-disciplinary accomplishments help show the way to an evolving planetary era that values both the integrity of ecological systems and the quality of life. He is Professor Emeritus in Architecture at the University of California where he taught from 1961 to 1995, and president of the Eco-Design Collaborative (www.ecodesign.org) based in Inverness, California.

By "sustainable communities," the authors mean largely self-reliant cities and towns whose use of fossil fuels has been sharply cut and whose economies are in balance with what the region can supply through natural processes. The bioregional approach, which some will deride as utopian, links the essays in this often provocative volume, the outgrowth of a "Solar Cities Design" workshop. Contributors include architects, community planners, ecologists and biologists. Case studies that demonstrate how human-scale communities could be built range from the undeveloped Chino Hills near Los Angeles to Philadelphia's gentrified neighborhoods. One essay faults agribusiness for its massive waste of land, energy and human resources; another calls for smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. While it has the disconnected feel of a volume of symposium proceedings, this book offers innovative solutions to the renewal of communities. Photos.
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