Retirement Community 2030

1999

Commissioned to speculate about the “retirement community of the future,” we realized that none of us boomers were likely to retire and so decided to work
on the plan of a small village with a large golf course. The village is organized in a series of clusters, each
of which has associated commercial, recreational,
and social space. The dwelling type is the row house and each row – oriented south for greenhouses and passive solar heating – shares a “living machine,” a bio-remediation device for waste water treatment. The houses themselves are made of soy-based plastic panels with tunable aerogel windows. All cars are relegated to the periphery of the community and internal movement is via walking, bikes, wheelchairs, and slow moving, zero emissions bubble cars that dock directly into ports on the houses. A robotic version of these vehicles is utilized for deliveries and other internal goods transportation.

Credits: M. Sorkin, A. Vovk.