Thinking Outside the Big Box
MP3 RadioThe combination of years of low mortgage rates, healthy labour markets and steady income growth in Canada, has resulted in a residential development boom that is seriously changing the face of communities across the nation.
But as communities expand and the economy strengthens, the question of sustainability remains. Will (or better yet, can) the North American dream of big box communities survive? With the development of more and more three car garage, mega home, sprawling suburban, single socio-economic class developments, comes not only environmental degradation, but the loss of social accountability and home place.
As our cities and towns expand in population and in human scale our children are unconsciously becoming disconnected from nature and reality. We are spending more time alone in our cars commuting to work, and less time celebrating together with our families. We are spending more time working to live and less time working to play. The cost of housing is forcing families that have spent generations in one neighbourhood, to move to foreign places with more affordable housing.
Will there be any reprieve from the big box madness? Innovative thinkers, developers and urban planners across the country are coming together at kitchen tables, meeting places and municipal halls to challenge current development standards. Concepts of co-operative housing, life-cycle design and modular “grow homes” are simple solutions to change the way we design our communities and plan our neighbourhoods.
In this program, ekosRadio co-hosts Starr Munro and Rick Searle, chat with world-renowned architect and designer Avi Friedman Ph.D. (Director of Affordable Housing Program, McGill University) about the impacts of the North American obsession with monster homes. Also participating in the conversation is Joe Van Belleghem (Partner, Windmill Development) who is the force behind an innovative community development in Victoria B.C. known as Dockside Green, and Sol Kinnis (Director, Roofs & Roots Housing Cooperative), a non-profit organization committed to developing co-operatively owned affordable, and ecologically sustainable housing.
Other resources:
Friedman, Avi. Room for Thought: Rethinking Home and Community Design.
Penguin Canada 2005.
Roofs and Roots
Dockside Green Project
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