Altair conducts successful design sessions!

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Member charrettes (the French word for collaborative design sessions) held during June and July resulted in general agreement about land-site and Common House designs. These have now provided auspicious (and inspiring!) visualization of what our future community will look like. Architects Tom Carnevale and Lauren Eustis facilitated both gatherings along with Land Planner Stephanie Wnuk and stormwater consultant Tom Halliwell (for the site charrette), which were held at Beaver Farm a Camphill community near the Kimberton site.

On June 25 we got to play with tiny structures! We moved them around until satisfied with the placement of the housing units on a representation of the land. We compared a "neighborhood" layout with a "linear" one with respect to our Pedestrian Walkway. We gave consideration to garden areas, recreation areas, parking areas, etc. Shading provided by trees could be gauged via moveable overhead sun-simulating illumination!

Pictures:

  1. Stephanie Wnuk of Renew Design working with our model

  2. John & Bob helping Dave set up the sun model

  3. Site model looking west down pedestrian walkway

  4. Site model looking east over solar carports

  5. Common House model looking South

  6. Common House model looking over East entrance

  7. Common House charrette at Beaver Farm

  8. Architects Tom Carneval and Lauren Eustis leading the Common House Design workshop

Then on July 16 we began the next charrette with a review of an updated version of the site plan. Project Manager Joel Bartlett asked for and received consensus agreement about it. The rest of the day focused on comparison of alternative Common House draft concept diagrams that Tom and Lauren had prepared. These were based on preferences expressed in recent Common House Circle meetings. Surprisingly, one of our elders showed us how the two concepts might blend together, and with a resounding Yes! Tom and Lauren came back with Concept #3 (see below...)

So now we can say that Altair EcoVillage is tangibly taking shape ... at least on paper, and in 3-D models ... and in our minds and in our hopes.