Re-imagining suburban ecological function
From Calvin Chiu's winning entry in the ReBurbia design competition, "Frog's Dream: McMansions turned into Biofilter Water Treatment Plants."
The aim of Dwell Magazine and Inhabitat’s recent ReBurbia design competition was to reimagine the American suburbs in the context of the current home foreclosure crisis and rising energy costs. The competition’s cheeky winning entry posits the transformation of abandoned suburban mansions into wetlands and water purification systems for urban centers: the buildings become machines housing micro-ecosystems, and the front yards become micro-wetlands, providing habitat for wildlife. The collective end result is a suburban skirt of wetlands supporting the water needs of the central city.
Other notable entries include a rezoning proposal to encourage small business entrepreneurship, a strategy to reuse big box stores for agricultural production, and the people’s choice award winner, a toolkit of infill techniques to address urban sprawl.
(via The Dirt)
