HORIZON 1: BEGINNINGS, VISIONING & ADVOCACY

The Solar Parade of Homes To the left, renderings of the two of the homes. Below, an aerial of the homes included in the “parade.” Both in home design and site plan, they are typical of up-market homes from the period in a typical suburban subdivision layout. Much more attention was paid to energy efficiency with a special emphasis on passive energy saving features. Note that some, but not all homes have solar photoelectric panels. All had solar hot water generation.

The Solar Parade of Homes

A simple diagram showing the many passive design techniques and components that were common in houses designed under this paradigm.

COURTYARD HOUSING

The courtyard housing typology was utilized as part of an affordable housing strategy at Civano. Typical L-shaped units containing their own patio were arranged in a row and then replicated in a symmetrical pattern. This operation rendered a linear courtyard between the two rows. Parking was located in the back of the lot in attached carports. An alternative kind of courtyard housing had the L-shaped patio units arranged in back-to-back rows. Each unit in this arrangement was entered through a side yard. Both kinds of courtyards were to address the public realm through a combination of massing and frontage designs.

Courtyard housing Plan A: Units arranged across from each other. Courtyard housing Plan B: Units arranged back-to-back.

A courtyard housing front on a neighborhood street design at the scale of a large house.

NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER

The Neighborhood Center was conceived during the charrette as an active social magnet at the core of Neighborhood One. It was imagined in terms symbolic as an expression of a seven generations commitment to sustainability as community well-being. Unlike typical suburban buildings of its kind, it was designed less as a sales center and more as a combination of community and small commercial/retail facility.

So strong was the belief that this had to be a building of civic function and form that it was located away from Houghton Road and closer to the daily movement patterns of residents going about their lives by bike, on foot, or by car. Its design inspiration was Southwestern and its monumental character the result of siting that made it visually distinct and present from every part of Neighborhood One.

The courtyard was imagined as a year-round community gathering space, protected from the desert sun by balconies, arcades, and trellises. A cooling tower loomed over the complex. It provided outdoor temperature control over the summer months and also air conditioning for the Kiva, the cylindrical meeting room, the most distinctive and spiritual place in the building. The construction of the Neighborhood Center was designed to illustrate various natural ways of building that were alternatives to standard wood framing. These included walls that absorbed heat throughout the day and released it at night; a focus on natural ventilation; daylighting; shading tailored to building orientation; etc.

Frontages, trellises, and trees that shade openings, water harvesting, xeriscape, sustainable materials and building components were all meant to combine to turn this building into an icon of climate-specific, mostly passive environmental design.

(left) Site plan illustrating the building’s location in the pivot point of the first neighborhood. A cooling tower dominates a quarter circular square to the northeast. (right) Cooling tower with depressed courtyard for collecting cool air.