Somerville Eco-village
At the Green Drinks this week, Alex gave a short talk about the new Somerville EcoVillage that’s being developed north of Perth. The idea is to create a town based on sustainable principles, with human activities integrated into the natural world and a strong community focus.
Somerville will have bike and pedestrian access throughout, and the blocks are laid out in small ‘clusters’ or neighborhoods. There’s a car-free village centre planned for entertainment, retail and services, which will reduce how far people have to go for everyday errands, as well as providing local employment. This will reduce the amount of car travel people have to do. They also hope to be self-sufficient with renewable energy, will have minimum efficiency requirements for buildings, and will be harvesting rainwater. 70% of the surrounding land will be bushland, and all community members will have access to common land as well as community facilities. Somerville hopes to attract a wide range of people: singles, couples, families, retirees. A lot of planning has gone into making the town as sustainable as possible, and it’s pretty impressive.
The idea for eco-villages was thought up by Robert Gilman in the early 90s. Community and environmental principles are given focus, with the intention of making a place to live that matches people’s values and becomes more satisfying than the current suburban sprawl. There are eco-villages all over the world, and a few popping up around Australia now. Queensland seems to have the most so far!
If you live near to one of these, why not pop your head in for a look? If you know of one that’s not on my list, please tell me about it!
Tags: eco-village
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
That sounds brilliant…I do wonder how well these ‘designed’ villages go compared to communities that grow up organically, but then I think if it is well-managed/planned and most importantly if the community is behind it - and why would you move to an eco-village if you didn’t have a strong green ethic - then they can really work. It is still a shame most people will have to drive to Perth for work though. Did they mention anything about the public transport options in the area?
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:15 pm
The idea is that there should be employment in the town for about half the adult residents. It’s about 20mins away from Midland, and I believe they’re going to have well-publicised car-pooling to the train station there or into Perth. I think they’re close to Chidlow as well, which has a bus service into Midland. I was thinking more about schools, but a bus service could work well in that situation too.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
That’s excellent, sounds like they’ve really thought things out.