Association Building Community

The Village Building Convergence (VBC), is part of The City Repair Project Placemaking Program, fulfilling City Repair’s mission to educate and inspire communities and individuals to creatively transform the places where they live. City Repair’s work is focused on developing strong local relationships, social capital and equity, placemaking, ecological design, supporting our local economy, and developing our city and bioregion as a network of interconnected Village Centers.

The Village Building Convergence is a statement of our combined dedication to create the world in which we want to be living. VBC is a cyclical, seasonal, celebration, a reclaimed holiday of community action. At its root, VBC is about actively building our community, and realizing the strength and beauty of our power when we work and play together. By building a physical and social village infrastructure we are realizing our common visions for a lively and sustainable urban community.

The Village Building Convergence 2008 (VBC8) is a 10-day event from Friday, May 23rd – Sunday, June 1, 2008 in which neighborhoods activate to build shared public places that they have envisioned, designed, funded, and will maintain for themselves. VBC8 will include hands-on education in permaculture design and construction, ecological building, and public art. All projects are built through collaboration, community conversations and commitment of a neighborhood to strengthen itself. Everyone is invited to attend evening events at a central location, to participate in workshops or listen to visionaries speak about various aspects of sustainable culture.

VBC will feature projects located in or adjacent to the public right of way and private projects that support community in various neighborhoods. Private site projects will be structures or systems that are built by and available to the communities concerned with that site, and hopefully available to some extent to the larger community. These will include public squares and meeting houses, community kiosks and benches, solar-powered and artistic innovations, and many other new ideas. Each project is initiated and managed by neighborhood groups with support from the VBC Placemaking Committee. The Placemaking coordinators will help neighborhoods facilitate and coordinate the outreach/public involvement process, community decision-making and design workshops, and the permit process with the City.