week 11

The Quarry Village project is certainly an intriguing idea, as it’s an idea to build sustainable living communities. While a very interesting idea, it just doesn’t seem very logical to me. First off, to think that they want to build 900 homes in only 22 acres comes off as a stretch. While an acre is a relatively large area, to build 900 homes on only 22 acres just seems like a bad idea, as 900 homes would more than likely mean about 3 or 4 thousand people in such a small, compact area. This reason alone leaves worry that the idea is just a pipe dream, and will surely fail. I also wonder how exactly they’re going to make sure that this sustainable community will not have any automobiles in it, considering there are neighboring housing areas where vehicles are rampant. To be honest, if I were one of the neighboring housing communities I wouldn’t want Quarry Village to even be built because it would just increase traffic through those communities as they would not be able to drive through the Quarry Village. Another thing about the Quarry Village that I have a problem with is that some of the larger units of the proposed village are the furthest away from the available transportation. Some of these large units are likely to be grocery stores, clothing stores, and other shopping places that are designed to supply Quarry Village with the necessities. For the Quarry Village to actually work, and be completely self-sustainable, the inhabitants would have to be extremely self disciplined, as they would ideally only eat from places in the Quarry Village. However, knowing human nature, I’m willing to bet that they would travel outside of the community to get food from time to time. I’m also willing to bet that this proposed Quarry Village will also cost a pretty penny, as building “green homes” certainly can not be cheap. If anything, they would cost more than normal homes as the materials needed to make a house “green” are more likely to cost more and be harder to come by, while also relying on newer and more expensive technology. This in turn would more than likely lead to only predominately wealthy people living in the houses, and thus leaving poorer people out of the communities. This is unfortunate as I believe poor people should receive the same opportunities as wealthy people, and by making these “green” technologies available to all people, not just wealthy people, we would be doing the world a great service in general. While the “Quarry Village” is a pretty cool idea, it just seems too impractical for me to actually think that one day it will happen, and thrive as a “green” community.