Written for the future cities list.

        We are a think tank and our premise was to research a self
sufficient life support system and a way of every body on Earth affording
it.
          We went on to search for  the lowest common denominator.  For
an ideal foundation unit  we begin with a self sufficient family where
three generation live under one roof. This immediately cuts down on the
construction costs, doubles the efficiency of the existing global housing
stock and the synergy is greater than the separate parts for new life
support strategies.  It consolidates a group of social functions and life
support needs like child care -- elder care -- education at home --
provide the bulk of the food chain on the same acre you live on with some
interacting with the immediate support group -- work at home in a cottage
industry to provide services for the immediate support group.  This
eliminates the five cities normally needed to deliver these social needs.
We were involved with the Waltons on TV as a demonstration of a lifestyle
that fit those parameters.
        To design a support group to compliment the self sufficient
family is much simpler now that we don't need all that transportation
with complicated infrastructure for all those separate services you can
perform  on the same acre you live on.  
        Again the ideal scenario is to  begin with a hexagon of three
hundred acres of so, which is a six sided circle for all particle
purposes. These hexagons fit into a lager picture of global hexagons on a
dymaxion map, a surveyors and map maker s dream. The circles can be pre
surveyed virtually and the lot designee can locate the lot corners by
satellite locating technology. The hexagon is in triangles and the lots
fit as parallelograms connected by concentric roads. These concentric
roads are linked by the radiating sides of the main triangles.
        The simplest layout is a corkscrew contiguous roadway. This lends
itself to the delivery tubes which can deliver most of the inter family
goods and services without  much surface transportation. The switching
and valving of the tubes is drastically simplified by the continuous
spiral roadway.
        A single pipe for Solar Hydrogen Town gas buried in  the service
road  can supply the water as well. The end use equipment is a Hydrogen
heating and cooling  sewrage,trash, garbage pyrolizing , electric
generating water recovery unit.  
        The support group is best served by an Intranet which can provide
the voting and always on electronic town meeting ie. direct democracy
from the neighborhood out rather than the other way round. This system is
the basis for the education system which the elders can teach the young
at home with the best of visuals and teaching aids. The barter system or
LETS Local Employment and Trading System is done by the same system used
for voting and education.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE VILLAGE

        When the layout is understood it is simple to construct the
village which is the largest unit in the modular city scape.   A simple
strategy is that the municipal corporation is formed on the Internet and
when the construction circle location  is chosen, the support
group-village  Intranet is formed and all the coordination for the
villages is done from there with all participating.  A municipal building
will eventually have to be constructed in the center of the circle on
common ground but  in the first stages it can be a trailer to house the
computers.  The roads are to be part of the lot designees
responsibilities and if  lots  are assigned contiguously the roads get
built as they are needed. The delivery tube and the Hydrogen pipe are
part of the project.  Each lot having two hundred foot  or so of frontage
is not an excessive responsibility when there is almost no taxes in this
system.  Modern construction techniques drastically reduce the cost of
roads and pipe laying.
              The Pernmaculture food system and the residence with the
cottage industry potential  built in is the next step. Our lowest common
denominator self sufficient housing unit is a semi underground biosphere
made out of ferro concrete with a glazed front.
http://www.igc.apc.org/raenergy/clone.gif
         Various conventional methods for building housing depends on the
means and requirements of the families participating. The goal to strive
for is class A construction which requires little maintenance and is
fireproof. This eliminates the need of a fire department which is a tax
burden.  With each household striving for self sufficiency and with
interdependency the crime potential is lessened which can eliminate the
need for a police also.  With the Hydrogen Economy the need for municipal
water, sewer, garbage and trash collection, purification of water and
sewerage,  the personal to maintain all that is also eliminated.  With
roads, utilities(delivery tube and hydrogen pipe) and rights of way
constructed and maintained by the land stewards the need for much tax
supported municipal  government is nil. A system of probono service from
each citizen over the course of a lifetime can man the computers ,
information services, and the local judiciary (the one  system handles
all with conflict resolution). The authority for a bioregional city to a
municipal planet stems from this simple system of the hundred family
support group  as the core of all government , eliminating thousands of
layers of government planet wide in the control of representatives in the
control of moneyed interests.  
        If we start by forming support groups and then decide what each
family can do we can go from there. Support groups can form Mondragon
http://mondragon.mcc.es/english/mcc.html  type enterprises and multiple
support groups can contribute to fit the need.  The support groups also
form the voting platform for direct democracy.  
        We did a piece describing the village concept  for  the democracy
24 project. http://www.wrldpwr.com/24/Raleigh_Myers.html
        We did a piece on the ultimate vehicle and it explains how the
vehicle can be component manufactured in a cottage industry setting.  
This lends itself to theme villages where they form around and industry
oas well as interelate for food and education.
http://www.igc.apc.org/raenergy/ultimatveh.html
        We did another piece on wireless communication which will enhance
the voting and organization  as well as become another cottage industry.
http://www.igc.apc.org/raenergy/wireless.html
        The main finance for the transition comes from switching to the
Hydrogen Economy. Which is the Gandhi strategy in a nut shell ie. how we
can free ourselves from the stranglehold of the captive consumer rat race
by simply bringing our life support needs into our control.  Think
globally but  produce your life support needs locally.
        There are a couple of groups who have announced that they are
attempting to put together a web site where they can act as a clearing
house for those forming support groups on the Internet. I believe I
posted one of the articles here. I will try to get more on it.

To get an over view of the Gandhi strategy you might check out our EARTH
 HOUR  lecture  http://www.igc.apc.org/raenergy/raenergy.html
http://www.igc.apc.org/raenergy/gandhi.html