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Announcing the New Book:
Rebuilding Community in America: Housing for
Ecological Living,Personal Empowerment, and the New Extended
Family
by Ken Norwood and Kathleen Smith
Are you troubled by urban sprawl, long commutes,
disintegrating family and community life, growing
environmental degradation, and the rising costs of
living?
If so, you're not alone. The demand in the United States for
alternatives to urban and suburban sprawl and the social
isolation, environmental degradation, and auto dependency
they engender are growing. In increasing numbers people are
looking for a more ecological, community-oriented lifestyle.
Rebuilding Community in America, recently published by the
Shared Living Resource Center, is designed to meet this
demand. In this book, the authors present a new vision of
how we can respond to changing economic, social, and family
characteristics and the environmental dangers of today by
creating new forms of housing which are intentionally
designed to support sustainable ways of living. Shared
living communities are presented as a way to provide a
supportive social/family lifestyle, cost of living savings,
energy savings, a safe place for raising children, and
cooperative sharing of resources. These communities balance
private living spaces with abundant common amenities such as
child care facilities, gardens, workshops, exercise rooms,
common dining spaces, etc. The emphasis is on creating
intergenerational, extended family communities where
cooperative human enterprises can foster social stability,
economic viability, and environmental health. To do this, we
need to cultivate the lost art of cooperation and working
together in a spirit of community. Rebuilding Community in
America shows us how.
Rebuilding Community in America is both inspirational and
practical - balancing visions for the future with steps for
achieving them. In ten chapters spanning 432 pages the book
explores both the personal and planetary benefits of shared
living communities. It highlights successful existing
communities and presents new designs for community, such as
the Urban Cooperative Block. Most importantly, it serves as
a practical, how-to, guide with several chapters focusing on
specific design guidelines, conflict resolution and meeting
facilitation techniques, financing, ownership,
organizational methods, planning strategies, and more. It
covers rural, suburban, and urban settings with an emphasis
on how to create sustainable communities within existing
urban areas in order to preserve agricultural land and open
space.
There is also a foreword by Ernest Callenbach, a resource
guide of communities, organizations, and literature, a
glossary of key terms, an index, and songs, poems, photos,
and over 250 illustrations which help to give a picture of
what rebuilding community in America means.
Rebuilding Community in America promises to be a valuable
resource for architects, designers, builders, planners, and
lay people interested in exploring sustainable
community:
"Rebuilding Community in America is a terrific resource,
packed with practical tools and suggestions for creating new
ways of living together that nourish the soul and sustain
the earth. Readers learn why it's important and how to do it
- in the city and in the country."
- Carolyn Shaffer, Co-author of Creating Community
Anywhere.
"Old ways of living are not working anymore. Ken Norwood and
Kathleen Smith's pioneering work is helping to lead us
towards new patterns - in innovative home design, more
cooperative relationships, energy and materials-conserving
lifestyles, and stronger mutual support. Both demographic
realities and ecological constraints will sooner or later
force us into a new approach to being neighbors, families,
friends, co-workers, and to the built and natural
environment. We badly need practical tools to help in this
great transition to sustainable living. Rebuilding Community
in America formulates the underlying issues skillfully and
offers a concrete, visible, and powerfully appealing vision
of workable solutions.
- Ernest Callenbach, Author of Ecotopia and Ecotopia
Emerging
The Urban Cooperative Block
By redesigning existing neighborhoods to create sustainable
communities in the city, we can revitalize our cities,
preserve our farmland and open space, and begin to heal our
fragmented society.
© SLRC
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introductions by each author
Village Acre Community - Visiting the New American Dream
Waking up from the American Dream
Starting a Community - the People, the Motivation, and the
Process
The Village Cluster - a New Approach to an Old Idea
Rural Communities - the Romance and the Reality
Community in the City - Models for Ecological Living
Designing for Group Living - Private Places and Common
Spaces
The Celebration of Food - Cooking and Dining as the
Foundation of Community
Tools and Techniques for Living Within the Ecosystem
Rebuilding Community in America - from Extended Families to
Eco Villages and Eco Cities
The Authors
The Shared Living Resource Center
Resource Guide
Glossary
Illustration Credits
To order copies of the book:
Call (510) 549-9706 for questions, prices
and discounts on orders of 5 or more.
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