About
~;~ Belive in~"...the sanctity of the natural world, our need to value it, to find a gentle relationship to it, to give to it as well as take from it…and to feel loss and sadness when we inevitably take."
http://www.greencenturyinstitute.org/
http://www.greencenturyinstitute.org/sketchbook.html
Califia
In this unprecedented era of global climate change and societal unrest, there is an urgent need for design solutions to implement large-scale sustainable urban projects. Califia is envisioned as a world-class real estate development and model ecocity, the first of its kind in North America. As a comprehensive, mixed-use model, the project will combine a variety of residential configurations with a full complement of civic, retail, and commercial spaces. Califia will synergize leading-edge green building design, advanced energy and technology systems, innovative social frameworks and exquisite natural environments.
The project will be a bold effort that draws upon the unique, high-yield resources of the San Francisco Bay Area, an evolutionary hotbed and home to many of the top researchers, entrepreneurs and institutions who are already building a sustainable world. Califia will bring the fruits of a diverse and world-changing culture into a high-profile living example of a new urban lifestyle, a better way to live with each other.
Green Century Institute (GCI)
Since its formation in 2002, Green Century Institute's activities have included hosting influential conferences with industry experts and potential community stakeholders to develop the full design concept of Califia. The inspiration for Califia grew out of a series of conferences GCI's founders held in 1997, 1999 and 2001 at Paolo Soleri's model ecocity in central Arizona, Arcosanti. Our overarching need in the future, as explored through this forum, will be for a new generation of "third millennium habitats" that combine technology-empowered community development with large-scale sustainable design and energy solution
With a mission of promoting initiatives that encourage a sustainable society, GCI was established in 2002 as a non-profit organization in association with the Rudolf Steiner Foundation. It was founded by Michael Gosney and Marc Kasky, pioneers in new technologies and community-based development.
On the occasion of the June 2005 "Green Cities" themed United Nations' World Environment Day, GCI produced the Green City Solutions Exhibit, the Eco-Visionary Summit, and the Sustainable Culture Symposium with leading experts including Al Gore. Also held at this time was a Califia presentation at the California Institute of Integral Studies. In 2006, GCI has facilitated a Califia Open Community Design Summit, as well as a symposium and series of focused meetings with potential high level collaborators. During the last two years GCI has established working relationships with leading ecocity projects in Europe and Asia, and is working today with dozens of green organizations in the SF Bay Area and across the nation. With a core membership of over three hundred key industry leaders, stakeholders and formal advisors, GCI has established an initial conceptual level community around the Califia development initiative.
At GCI, we believe that in the future all cities will be green. In order for this vision to become a reality, however, the design community must first become fully educated and engaged in what the future of green urbanism really means. In defining this way forward, GCI believes one of the most powerful tools we can currently reach out to is our own imaginations.
GCI is working with the internationally recognized and award winning Jerde Partnership and the highly regarded Cosanti Foundation, established in 1956 by visionary architect Paolo Soleri in the development of the Califia proposal.
Califia Sketchbook Design Competition
The purpose of developing the Califia Sketchbook Design Competition is to express to a wide variety of people what life will be like in Califia, a proposed next generation eco-city. People from around the world are invited to enter a conceptual sketch conveying their view of "slices-of-life" within Califia, revealing smarter ways of building, powering, and maintaining the urban fabric. We believe that allowing for more direct public involvement in the design of future living spaces is the first step in a successful eco-city project. A design competition is an elegant way to allow for such public involvement.
We ask entrants to explore in their conceptual sketches solutions to the following problems:
● overemphasis on the individual and its negative impact within communities: isolation and higher consumption
● quality of life being determined solely by certain economic factors
● false assumption of infinite resources : water, food, energy, raw materials
● dissociation from the natural environmental and subsequent abuse of the land
Entries will show how people, space and technologies/implements can be organized to solve such problems in a whole-systems, interconnected manner.
Sketches will be submitted in a digital format through this web site beginning Sept. 1, 2007 and ending Dec. 1, 2007. Entries will be reviewed and judged by a jury of visionary architects, designers and developers. The jury will award two cash prizes and ten honorable mentions. Honorable mentions will be awarded in categories determined by the jury. The amounts which will be awarded for the cash prizes are $2000 for the winner and $1000 for the runner up. All of these twelve prizes will also include publication in a future print monograph entitled "Sketchbook: Green City of Tommorow," display in an exhibition detailing the work of the competition at both the 2008 Ecocity World Summit and a San Francisco museum/gallery, an opportunity to meet distinguished members of the competition jury, and priority consideration as consultants when the planning and development of the Califia ecocity actually begins. Fifty to seventy five more of the top entries will also be included for publication in the sketchbook monograph and be on display at the ecocity exhibition. All entries will be published digitally on the Green Century Institute website for the public good.
