Painted_Turtle wrote:
very cool! One of my wife's cousins builds zero energy houses as they call them here.. no need for any additional heating or power input from the outside (and we are talking about 50° latitude) .. combination of clever insulation, solar power and design.

Also at the weekend we went down to the alps and all the local houses were using geothermal energy and heat-pumps effectively and economically. I had always heard conflicting opinions about the economics of it but apparently it depends on how deep you need to go down down. All these guys now have an unlimited supply of heat available for the cost of operating a water pump. Not bad.

well, ok, maybe not.

meower wrote:

no! that's really good!!

 lunar1963 wrote:  Wind wouldnt work on apartments in my opinion.  Here's what a large apartment building called Colorado Courts is doing.  They used a combination of methods, different ones than these could be used, based on the local environment

http://www.buildingwithawareness.com/index.html

"Electricity is generated through a combination of solar panels and a natural-gas-fired micro turbine. These two on-site electricity-generating systems, have the capacity to meet over 90% of the building's electrical needs.

 During daylight hours, power generated from the photovoltaic panels in the windows are fed into the grid. The utility grid serves as a storage battery to supply electricity at night and on cloudy days. A natural-gas-fired micro turbin on the roof generates additional electricity.

 Waste heat from the micro turbine is used to create hot water for domestic use and for space heating via a hydronic radiator heating system.

 This building generates over 90% of it own energy for electricity, hot tap water, and interior heating. The building was able to eliminate the need for air conditioners by taking advantage of prevailing winds and the use of operable insulative windows"

This is only a beginning of the things that could be done with proper government encouragement & engineering innovation

 AliGator wrote: 
Hasn't that already been done?

And aren't they knee-deep in the hoopla now?


*snicker* 

 AliGator wrote: 

ooooh   that's really reallly realllly badddd

We should build it on rock-n-roll.

*ducks and runs*

Maybe for the other city... The dark one.

 dionysius wrote: 

and look down at all the asshats on the other side of the track

dionysius wrote:
makes me think of kafka's castle somehow...

 Painted_Turtle wrote: 

Every appartment building it's own windmill... Would look impressive, although they are very noisy and the shadows would drive you nuts!

 dionysius wrote: 

hmmmm....

now where have I heard that before??

JFK, perhaps, plagarizing John Winthrop?

So much for the City on the Hill. John Winthrop AND JFK would surely WEEP if they saw their beloved Massachusetts Bay Colony today...

Today I had to take part in permanently closing a bridge on a major artery in my community because the state (who owns the road and the bridge) cannot come up with the $250,000 to fix it.

Massachusetts is swirling in the bowl, folks. Some city on a hill....

 Zep wrote: 
excellent...may a add a couple more things?

living green roofs on the buildings
small organic vegetable gardens or native plants (to maintain local biodiversity) instead of lawns or vacant lots
Co-operatively owned factories that operate based on fair trade, equal exchange of service & product
Locally owned neighborhood stores
Rain gardens with individual/neighborhood water retention & recycling
Renewable energy resources for local shared areas: wind, solar and small-scale hydropower, ect. that create energy self-sufficiency
Small, family or co-operatively owned & operated organic farms
Increased credit unions instead of large conglomerate internationally owned banks
Reuse & recycling of building products & wood

...on a hill. The best city ever. Let's imagine that the whole world is watching us. We will believe that we are exceptional. Wouldn't that be awesome?

This is an early example of the type of place that Zep is thinking of, a so-called Garden City.

This one is in England, but we have similar examples...  Very green and lush, in order to have the amount of people living there that we are used to now, you would need huge appartment buildings!

lunar1963 wrote:
what a cool idea for a thread...

I want my city to be full of nooks and crannies and places to explore. Little oases of creativity in unlikely places... guess that doesn't quite qualify for greasy or corrupt.. but a city should be an adventure you never get tired of.

meower wrote:

 lunar1963 wrote: 

well, yea that's where the asshats live

Your cities are so clean and paradise like... That's the Utopian school of thought, which is good, green, pretty and well, nice!

Paradise City will be city one! What would it look like?

However, on the wrong side of the track and (preferably very dirty) river is another town, greasy and corrupt... Any builders for that one as well?