Community Design in the Year 2012

by Patrick Walkinshaw

Hello, my name is Noble and I have been asked to share with you a glimpse of my world. At the turn of the century our region faced a critical decision point in how to create communities to best honor human and cultural development. Today, twelve years after the millennium, we have begun to see the results of our hard work and creativity. I trust that the following will provide you with the insight you are looking for.

To begin, a little introduction of who I am and where I live. I am 13 years old and am an apprentice with our local Planners’ Guild. I live with my family which consists of my biological parents, another young person who is 10 years old, her parents, and my “grandfather”, who is a long-time friend of my parents. We live in a community of 7500 people in the Finger Lakes Bioregion on the North American continent.

I understand that you are interested in community design—how to create a community that works for all members and is in harmony with the natural world. Let me start by outlining the principles we used to guide our planning process 12 short years ago.

  1. Every individual is born with a unique purpose and an appropriate life situation to achieve that purpose.

  2. Each individual can be trusted to know what is best for him/herself and to clearly articulate his/her truth.

  3. Social systems and physical design should both maximize an individual’s ability to discover his/her path and encourage cooperative and harmonious group work.

  4. We are a part of natural systems in mind and body. The health of those systems has a direct correlation to our own health.

  5. Appropriate design harmonizes with the subtle energy flows of the earth and its inhabitants.

  6. We humans are social creatures and gravitate towards each other. We also need our individual space.

  7. Form flows from function. As we evolve as a species so will the forms we create.

  8. Honesty, responsibility, and awareness are attributes we value and model.

Once we agreed on these truths, we critically examined our social systems and infrastructure and found some glaring inconsistencies. The most obvious place where we weren’t honoring our principles was in our treatment of young people. We realized that forcing young people into age-segregated, competition-focused educational systems severely limited their ability to find their unique truth, dramatically narrowing each person’s potential. We acknowledged that adults were treating the young with a certain condescension and lack of respect. It became obvious that age discrimination was the basis for placing children in oppressive systems. How had this happened? How had we allowed ourselves to continue to discriminate against people based on age while actively fighting discrimination against all other groups?

The emphasis in our culture on the material world, the worship of the false gods of wealth, fame and fortune, together with a general lack of spiritual awareness set the stage for many adults to feel threatened by the questioning minds and free spirits of the young. The answer to their fear was to control and mold the young to fit in to adult society. As we delved deeper into these emotions, we realized that to effect change in our systems we needed first to shift our belief patterns and acknowledge the divine within all of us. Clearly, this was no easy task and took many years of a serious community commitment. The transformation, however, had begun.

Once we began to liberate our energy from the constraints of fear, new forms for our young organically appeared. Creativity flowed as if a dam had burst. No longer did adults create and provide youth services and institutions as if the young were helpless and mindless. Instead, young people became co-creators of systems that truly acknowledged and honored the worthiness of all people.

We came to realize that effective youth development begins even before conception. We redefined sexuality as a healthy and sacred expression between people engaged in loving relationship. We encouraged people who were interested in having children to consciously choose the appropriate time to conceive and to invoke the child’s spirit while love-making, effectively focusing the energy of the couple and creating a fertile environment for the new being. Ritualization of conception prepares the parents and supporting community for the changes to come.

Simultaneously, we radically decentralized our health care system, placing traditional and alternative medical practitioners throughout our neighborhoods at nodes of activity to encourage direct interaction with the population they serve. Pre-natal counseling is now integrated with the family’s overall continuing healthcare. To properly honor the magic and mystery of the birth process, we created special birth settings throughout the community staffed by midwives and made accessible to the whole family. We shied away from routine medical interventions in labor and delivery in order to foster birthing as a natural, healthy process rather than as a condition to be managed or healed.

I should mention here the importance of ritual in our community. Birthing is just one of the natural cycles we choose to acknowledge and celebrate. Rituals are our way of honoring individual paths, embracing community, and centering our lives around natural reference points. Each ceremony is initiated by the family or neighborhood in their religious or spiritual tradition of choice. A sample of typical ceremonies include: conception ritual, welcome baby to the world, rite of passage from adolescence into adulthood, appreciation circles marking traditional birthdays, passage into the role of elder, and funerals. We celebrate the cycles of nature as well, in full moon ceremonies and seasonal celebrations like solstice, equinox, and harvest. At any given time during the year one can enter a neighborhood and experience the song and dance of community ritual. By reclaiming ritual as a central part of our lives, we gained a reverence for life, and enhanced our connection as a community.

Again, we went back to the basics of effective child rearing that have passed the test of time in many of our cultures around the world. Every mother is supported to nurse. Work and community environments were modified so that babies can be carried in arms throughout the day. Touching, holding, and intimacy are basic needs for babies (and all of us), so we stopped questioning whether too much love and attention would spoil a child, and committed ourselves to providing our children with an environment full of physical and emotional closeness.

We also realized that placing the entire burden of child-rearing on the biological parents made very little sense, often leading to the parents feeling overwhelmed and frustrated and the baby being deprived of attention. So we expanded our definition of family care-givers to include children, elders, and other non-related adults. Presently children receive care primarily from the elders, who have the time and the life wisdom to offer the attention children need. I cannot stress enough how vital elders have been to fostering stability in a child’s life and in the passing down of customs and values. No longer must children rely on peer groups or young parents to answer their questions of the world. As an added benefit, biological parents have more time to follow their own creative endeavors without losing the pleasure of watching their children grow up.

To support these new family structures we needed new building forms, and we found that clustered housing best met our needs for community and family. We infilled existing city blocks with dwellings of various sizes and shapes depending on intended use. The area at the center of the blocks has become common land, accessible to all by a network of paths. We found that many streets could be either ripped up and planted or turned into “slow streets” for resident traffic only. Within the city, the network of slow streets and paths creates safe passage for pedestrians, bicyclists, roller bladers, etc. Distinct neighborhoods consisting of a few hundred people have formed, each with an organizational body to oversee the common spaces and zoning practices. These neighborhoods have distinct subcultures with unique values, habits, and beliefs. Each neighborhood has clearly defined boundaries, is open to anyone who wishes to live there, and provides a way for people to truly belong to a social group of their choosing. Young people raised in our neighborhoods experience an important grounding in the beliefs of their birth families, and at the same time are exposed to many other ways of living.

We have eliminated rental properties in the traditional sense so that no one profits from another’s basic need for housing. Every family and individual has autonomy over their home whether or not they have actual financial ownership. All money paid for living in the house or toward improvements builds equity for the occupants. This way, we ensure that people are invested in the properties and neighborhoods they inhabit.

The homes themselves are built to suit the situation of the individual or family. Households for one person are simple structures usually containing one large room with many alcoves; households for a couple balance personal and shared space; households for a small family balance a couple’s realm with the children’s realm; and teenagers often have their own cottage-like space connected to the main house with a separate entrance for greater privacy. Senior housing radiates into the community from a central health care facility, so elders are integrated in the community while having any health care needs met. In all homes as well as in work areas and community gathering spaces, close attention is paid to creating common spaces where people naturally tend to gather for socializing and shared meals. Common areas are adjacent to the corridors of the building so one can view the space and the people inside without disturbing them if one chooses not to stop and chat. Outdoor public squares are designed in much the same way, providing an important social function.

Now I would like to share with you what the community looks like from the perspective of a young person, beginning with my home. As a young child I had my own space and my play area was a swath extending from my room through the common areas to the outdoors. My toys and clothes were easily accessible to me on low open shelves and I had many nooks and hideaways for privacy. Once outside I had access to large expanses of common land unbroken by traffic, connecting about 50 households which gave me many potential playmates. The common land has free-form organic “playgrounds” with nets, crates, ramps, boxes, barrels, trees, ropes, water, etc. where my friends and I could create and re-create playgrounds of our own. There are also numerous places for individual and team sports as well as public access to wild areas, farmland, and greenways that extend from the country into the heart of the city. Youth activities are visible to passers-by and nearby dwellings, serving as an invitation for others to participate and providing a measure of safety.

In every neighborhood at least one home is identified as a gathering place for children. Large rambling houses with sizable yards accessible by bike and pedestrian paths are chosen and permanent adult residents make the home accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It also functions as a place for communal eating and socializing so there is always a bustle of activity. Young people of any age can visit at their leisure for a few minutes or even overnight if they desire a change of pace from their family life. Each household in the neighborhood contributes to the cost of running the home and the resident youth worker can focus on building relationships and community.

We have special learning systems used by young people and adults alike. A network of learning centers has replaced the outdated institutions of elementary, secondary, and university schooling present in your society. Learning has been recovered as an exciting, life-long process, and, combined with each individual’s creativity, forms the “glue” that binds our community. Learning Centers are open to all ages and everyone is encouraged to both teach and learn. Learning facilitators are available for support, but many children find that they prefer exploring the world with other children or through less formal relationships with adults. Centers usually have several rooms with a wide range of possible activities; some Centers focus on particular subjects such as art or mechanics. Classes are formed and reformed depending on interest. A database of apprenticeships and resource people is accessible so that learners can link with community members, businesses, and guilds doing work of interest. All forms of intelligence and modes of learning are nurtured and given room for expression. Much of the time, energy is directed toward community service and the creation of new systems that continue our movement toward becoming a sustainable society.

We teenagers have gathering spaces of our own that we manage and direct. Teens gain independence and opportunities to learn business, group decision-making, and conflict resolution skills. The spaces serve as “hang-out” spots as well as places for creative expression through the visual or performance arts. Starting twelve years ago, these Teen Centers were where young people and supportive adults organized to address the oppression of the young and began to reevaluate the principles and values of our communities. From the beginning, youth activism has provided vital energy toward the changes we as a community have instituted.

Play areas, Learning Centers, and Teen Centers are interconnected with all community activities, including the working world. Whether on a farm, in a computer programming firm, or at a local tailor shop, young people are invited to observe, ask questions, and participate. Work is organized by Career Guilds which oversee a variety of essential community services such as health, planning, agriculture, transportation, etc. Each guild has a specific training and apprentice program open to anyone drawn to that particular work. Guilds offer basic living stipends to all members and are supported by local taxes.

Our communities now embrace a bioregional perspective, one that recognizes the unique natural habitats and landforms of a region. We continue to work towards meeting the basic needs of our communities while maintaining the health of our ecosystems. We have found the most effective and responsive businesses to this perspective are those locally owned and cooperatively operated. Our transition away from a global economy was aided by the use of local currencies that recycled money within our community. While trade with other bioregions still occurs, it has become less necessary.

Unlike your current communities, our young people have a voice in all community affairs. There is no requisite voting age and we have eliminated age-based laws, a logical outcome of our acknowledgment of the inherent worth of each individual. Rather than discriminate based on age, we have focused on measuring ability. For example, to obtain a driver’s license, a detailed training and evaluation process is required regardless of age. Obviously, we have no compulsory schooling and we have eliminated age limits on employment, since free choice is honored for all ages. Young people are no longer considered the “property” of their parents, and any alleged abuse or violation of personal boundaries is presented for neighborhood conflict resolution, where young people and adults have equal voice. We truly believe “it takes a village to raise a child”, and continue to redesign systems to reflect our principles.

As you can imagine, the forms and design elements I have described were the result of years of process and construction, still ongoing today. Our transformation was initiated by refining the community decision-making process and inspired by such literary works as A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander et al, Malidoma Somé’s, Ritual; and Starhawk’s, The Fifth Sacred Thing. Once we acknowledged the principles on which to rebuild our communities, we gave decision-making back to the people who were most immediately impacted. Individuals are now empowered to set up their lives as they choose; families decide how to set up their living places; neighborhoods make decisions related to general zoning and common space use; communities of between 5,000 and 10,000 people make decisions on issues related to the areas between neighborhoods; the Bioregional Council deals with matters of the bioregion as a whole; the World Council deals with planetary issues. Our system encourages creativity to flow on an individual level and allows people to have a real voice in their communities. We are continuing to see new forms emerge as we experiment and reevaluate our changing way of life. I am proud to say that we have an empowered populace that actively delights in living, learning, and experiencing the world with others.

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© Copyright 2000. Patrick Walkinshaw - All Rights Reserved.