Design Decisions Reached!

by Anthony Weston

A major meeting on Sunday, 24 September marked the successful culmination of an intensive research and planning phase as we organize ourselves to head again into architectural design work with professional Design Partners.

Beginning in early August, four Working Groups, involving over 18 HM members in total, focused on specific basic in questions concerning Sustainability, Equity and Economic Accessibility, Style (architectural design), and Cost (construction and operational). Each group developed increasingly detailed reports, many shared with each other and Planning, Design, and Development (PDD). In early September we began to coordinate the reports and focus them into proposals in the sociocratic format – starting with our Principles and Intentions and ending in specific and applicable proposed measures. These were then shared with all Working Group participants in advance (though on a tight schedule, sorry…)

We met in the great living room of Hart’s Nest – appropriately, our first official community meeting there. Question rounds included all members who attended, many of whom were active on the Working Groups and had followed proposal development carefully online. General Circle made the ultimate decisions. Discussion was grounded and immensely aided both by the coordination and parallel structuring of proposals – credit PDD and the Working Group conveners: Christina, Charles, Hope, Katy, and Anthony –  and by skillful facilitation both by our impressive inside talent (yay, Maria!) and an outside facilitator, Mark Molitor, who joined us for the day as well as offering his sage counsel in numerous lead-up planning sessions (with Maria, Hope, Jeffry, and Anthony). Most of all the success of the work was a credit to the focused intent of all who attended – many thanks to all!!!

Style: In a miracle of major and unprecedented proportions, we have actually consented to a basic design concept. “Sunslope” features a large south-facing, low-pitched roof as the prime roof for each unit, to be largely dedicated to solar (PV) panels. A smaller roof section on the north side attaches at the same pitch but in the other direction, making an asymmetrical gable roof – a kind of modernized and adapted “saltbox” design. Inside layouts remain to be decided, but one natural floor plan places living & dining rooms under the lower end of the big roof, with its sloping ceiling creating “lift” above. Under the upper end of the big roof could be a half second floor with bedrooms and a bath, over a downstairs kitchen and another BR or study. (This is the basic 3 BR version.) Stairs rise from the living/dining “great room” to the second floor, allowing for a balcony overlooking the lower area. A detailed and illustrated Sunslope proposal can be found here.

Sustainability. We are defining Sustainability as having the least impact on the environment, the longest life, lowest maintenance, greatest damage resistance, lowest cost to maintain, maximum attention to the human factor, and reducing toxicity as much as possible. A detailed proposal breaks down sustainability goals by major categories: Energy (ways to get at least to net zero and hopefully better); Water (self-sufficiency in the long run); Materials (major durability and longevity with least impact, and highlighting some highly attractive potential new options); Appliances and HVAC; Lighting; Food (permaculture zones 0 / 1 would be our porches!); Waste; and other Design Features. We reaffirmed our intention to design and make full use of Common House facilities and community wide solutions to reduce individual house space and appliance requirements, and to promote life style changes to assist in that goal as well. A full and consented-to Sustainability proposal can be found here.

Equity: Hart’s Mill Ecovillage is committed to promoting affordability, demographic diversity, and social and ecological justice for ourselves and the land. Housing affordability—short and long term—is a paramount (though not sole) concern if we are to be able to attract and retain members across spectrums of age, race/ethnicity, gender, agrarian skills, etc. The Equity Working Group therefore brought a specific proposal to GC whose key features include pegging our house cost goals to affordability for people earning 85-100% of Area Median household Income (about $46,000-$54,000 for two people in Orange County in 2015), along with flexible housing options, such as shared housing and farm housing, and energetically pursuing sources of subsidies and alternative financing. The GC discussion was highly supportive, and fertile, leading to development of the proposal, with final consent pending adjustment and further development. A detailed background report can be found here.

Cost: The Cost Working Group offered a detailed report rather than a specific proposal. Included are an update and summary of overall development costs and key construction cost take-aways. Good news is that looking at average construction cost over a plausible mix of HM homes at 2017 prices, we are comfortably below the $150/SF working target. We also learned that with current costs for standard grid-tied PV panels (without battery backup) and utility power rates, the monthly cost of financing an installed PV system can offset the monthly utility bill dollar-for-dollar for the same amount of energy!

This work generated not only necessary and significant decisions, as noted, but also a rich resource of background material and wide-ranging member expertise as planning goes forward. The meeting ended with rounds of mutual appreciation and delight. ¡Adelante!

photo by Joe Cole