Village in the Forest
We return to the edges of the city of Flatsville, Arkowa.
After a long period of decline, having overbuilt their infrastructure, the nearby suburb of Littelton has gone bankrupt. Previously, the state legislature gave our Metropolitan Planning Authority enormous power, and Flatsville status as a Special Economic Zone. Now they are demanding we Do Something about this before it hits the state news and becomes a scandal to be exploited by the Opposition Party.
Mmmkay, and how long does it take to make that moss grow?
Realistically these walls will look like this:
[highway sound barrier.jpg]
Which is not something I want surrounding my village.
You could always install garden trays along the walls.
After reviewing Littelton’s finances, the MPA discovered that it was less costly (over the long term) to simply abandon the old town and move the residents into new quads in Flatsville. A truck has been sent to go gather Littelton’s ‘famous’ town bell.
We want our incoming suburbanites to feel safe and comfortable, so we build a 3m tall brick wall around the inner residential area of our quad. It has 4 wide vehicle entrances which are well lit and have security cameras, and an additional 8 pedestrian entrances which close at night.
Rather than hide the buildings from the city, as in Milton Keynes, we partially hide the wall and the city from the buildings, with a ring of tree cover which functions as a park, with a loop of bicycle path around the inner development. Additional park elements along the path will be added later.
Placement of our building lots also occludes the view straight through the quad. More organic arrangements of lots could be used, but a simple square grid with central park will suffice for now.
On the interior, narrow streets encourage foot traffic, with a ring of single-lane, one-way street with wide sidewalks for vehicles to load and unload and for access by emergency vehicles. (MPA parks planners are still fighting over just whose park will be demolished to add New Littelton’s parking lots.)
As with the other quads, the outer ring is mixed use (including commercial, residential, and light industrial), while the inner area is residential. Some small shops on the outside, with better access to traffic, can thus be easily walked to from within the central ring.