How to Build a Village, 1st Edition [Paperback]

Claude Lewenz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0473121883 | ISBN-13: 978-0473121884 | Edition: 1st

SUBURBS WERE INVENTED TO SELL CARS.

Toward the end of World War II, American business and government leaders saw a second Great Depression looming if government spending ended and millions of soldiers returned home. They decided to turn the war-winning industries of oil, jeeps and tanks into the post-war civilian industries of oil, cars and bulldozers - to go from fighting a war to building the new American suburbs. To make the shift they legislated a radical change in how humans live - spreading out human activities so the mundane chores of daily life required a car.
The economic plan worked and for over half a century the US economy boomed. "What's good for General Motors is good for America". Without understanding why, other countries adopted the American way - even countries that did not make cars or pump oil. While the plan was good for America's post-war economy, suburbs proved to be an immeasurably bad use of resources - both natural and in how people live.

VILLAGES ARE DESIGNED FOR QUALITY OF LIFE

What happens if we design for quality of life rather than to sell cars? What would the zoning look like? How would it work? In this 256 page book with over 400 color photographs, this question is examined in detail. The answer is a "Village" defined as a 5,000 to 10,000 population, self-contained, high-density community built on 100-400 acres around multiple plazas with cafes, shops, workplaces and artist guilds and no cars within - all is within a 10-minute walk with a motorpool for the cars, outside the Village gates. Local governments can think of the Village as an environmentally, socially, culturally and economically sustainable, self-contained, billion-dollar, greenfield, mainstream investment that brings in over 2,000 new, quality jobs worth over $100 million a year. Future residents of the Village can think of it as a wonderful, thriving and fulfilling place to live.
Each part of a Village makes another part work. The keystone is its own local economy. With a local economy, the Village is micro-zoned - everything people need is within walking distance... homes, work, shops, cafés, schools and recreation. This removes need for cars, which lowers pollution and cost of living. No cars results in smaller roads, more human-scaled, lower-cost and better land-use. Elders need not move to retirement homes when they no longer drive. Children can play in the streets and plazas where working adults keep an eye on them. Small streets require fireproof buildings (no large fire trucks), thus the book proposes a design that is also rot-free and super-insulated. Plazas provide the perfect setting to Slow Food - enriching social interaction. Add the cultural enrichment of arts guildhalls and the Village becomes more interesting. Another social element include parallel market affordable housing, homes for service workers, teachers, youth, elders, artists - the glue that holds a community together.
This book is necessary to challenge a mindset. The ideas are simple, conservative, (meaning proven, time-tested, not risky) and should be obvious. However, experts spent 50 years inventing a complex, radical, and problem-ridden way for people to live now so embedded in mainstream thinking that it takes a book, with systematic details, to show a way out. Once the book resets that mindset, www.villageforum.com provides the forum to build the Villages. The book will be judged not on numbers of copies sold but Villages built.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The idea of building a habitat to not only be a wonderful place to live, but also solve all sorts of social, economic and environmental challenges facing modern society took author, Claude Lewenz about 20 years, and considerable research, dialogue, focus groups and real-life testing to refine.

Then, shortly before the book was published, global warming and affordable housing became political hot topics. Good timing. However, if one looks at the proposals people and organisations are making to solve greenhouse gas emissions, for example, they focus on making cars more efficient, or mixing in biofuel to reduce the adverse effects of a car-based society. For long-distance transport this makes sense. But within local habitat we have better choices, ones which How to Build a Village puts forward.

What happens if instead we build human habitat where we don't need to drive? We don't reduce or offset CO₂ emissions, we stop emitting. We burn no fuel - zero emissions. Design to remove the need for cars as local transport.

In the 1990's the new urbanism movement began to advocate more human scaled habits. Among other things, it sought to domesticate the car. How to Build a Village, goes three steps further:

First, it identifies the essential requirement that we create a thriving local economy that sells local to global and buys local. This becomes possible thanks to advances in telecommunications, especially high-speed broadband. This makes it possible for its residents to walk to work.

Next, it places everything people need... work, shopping, schooling, cafés, recreation and a wide range of housing, all within a 10-minute walk surrounded by a greenbelt. Within the habitat, ban all cars. Not needed. Build a motorpool outside the village walls for longer distance transport. Banning cars within allows a completely different, human-scaled design. Old people need not move to retirement homes when they lose their driver license. Children play in the streets safely. People connect on plazas, no appointment needed; quality of life goes up. Streets are narrower, cost less to build and maintain. The development costs less to build, needs less land, yet is more charming.

Third, it builds to a critical mass, 5,000 to 10,000 persons, and it creates parallel housing markets to provide permanent, non-bureaucratic affordable housing for key sectors of the community... youth, elders, teachers, public servants, artists and so on.

The book offers hundreds of other design patterns that fit together in the Village concept. Yet, in providing them, the book does not dictate a master plan - no cookie cutter design. Instead, it provides a process in which the people who will live there, the professionals with expertise, the approving governmental authorities, and the attributes of the land work together to produce an authentic design reflecting the distinct character of the people and place. This assures each Village is distinctive, reflecting the authentic character of its people, and that it remain interesting and fulfilling for a lifetime.

From the Author

"There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come." [popular misquote of Victor Hugo]

I think the universe must not only be intelligent but interested in human affairs. After spending many years in ressearch and then 16 months taking photographs and writing a book, in the final few months of writing this book, the world shifts its attention to the subject matter of the book. Amazing!

The pressure to get this book in print is growing daily. Over coffee in the village cafe, friends made it very clear the book needed to go to the printers now, and further they were ready to call a circle of their peers prepared to do whatever might be necessary to get it underway now. I recognised that as author this was not about me, but the book.

I was the midwife to some ideas bigger than me, ideas that will take on a life of their own as others pick them up and cause them to become manifest, to enter the public arena. Fine by me, I want to live in a Village, not spend my life talking about them.

A very long time ago, when I first began to promulgate the idea of using design and architecture to address some of the challenges facing society, I got soundly thrashed by those upon whom I tested the ideas. Like wine that requires aging to become fine, the ideas slowly evolved. When funds were needed to focus intense attention, such as running the think tank, funds came, usually from completely unrelated places. When I would get stuck on an idea, an email would come in requiring a response, and in writing it, the answer would emerge for the book.

In writing this book, I confess to be a collector of ideas. While I'm sure I would love to be credited with all the insights and inspirations I hope readers find herein, most have come from dialogue with others. The ideas are part of a collective consciousness where I take responsibility for the bad ideas, but attribute the good ideas to over forty years of asking questions. This book is also the product of interviews, focus groups and a two year think tank that I ran in the 1990s. I use the collective "we" in the book to reflect ideas that came from these groups and interviews.

The best advice I got in writing this book: "Don't worry about making it perfect, the readers of the first edition will give you plenty of advice. Get it done and get it published."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Jackson House Publishing Company; 1st edition (August 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0473121883
• ISBN-13: 978-0473121884
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,969,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Claude Lewenz, born 1951, grew up in Baltimore, Maryland at a time when some of the best and worst of America's real estate development occurred in his home town. Levittown style suburban sprawl was in full bloom, the first shopping malls were built; the solid and often beautiful brick homes of the city were being torn down as block busters abandoned welfare tenements rather than pay for repairs; the Beltway and Jones Falls Expressway replaced the trains and trolleys with private cars that filled the air with a perpetual traffic roar that only ceased when a blizzard would stop the trucks for a few hours. At the same time, Baltimorians like journalist Marty Millspaugh and mortgage banker Jim Rouse set out a far more positive vision for the future, and remarkably, they succeeded. They enrolled politicians like the singular Mayor Donald Schaefer who gave new meaning to the word "yes" when it came to good ideas proposed by the citizens of his city. Those ideas first were voiced around kitchen tables, as Marty would pitch his vision to friends and neighbors like Claude's parents in Ruxton. Those early conversations at the kitchen table stuck with him.

Claude grew up with a lot of freedom. No one worried where the children were during the day; everyone had a different cow bell to ring when it was dinner time. No one locked their doors, and children wandered into neighbors' houses to visit, to listen to old people tell stories of the war, or the days before cars. Neighbors looked after each other and local crime was unknown.

When he married, he and his wife began to look for the kinds of communities they had known when young. Somehow, without any obituary, those places had disappeared. When their daughter was born, they lived in Greenwich Connecticut, a comfortable leafy town, but a place where children were never out of sight of parents, trusted friends or someone paid to look after the children. They began to look around, first in America and then world-wide, to find a place where children could be free, yet a place that was stimulating, intellectually and artistically creative. They found that place on a far off island in the South Pacific and moved there. But, while it provided the place to raise their daughter and enjoy the good life, Claude continued to pursue the question: Why do we build communities the way we do? Isn't there a better way?

Trained as a historian with a focus on the founding fathers of the United States; after his master's degree in school administration Claude spent five years reading Plato with Professor John Bremer. Claude wanted to understand what gave leaders like Thomas Jefferson the knowledge base to develop the language for a new nation. He found they had a classical education of a sort difficult to get in the modern university. So when he met Professor Bremer during Claude's master's program, he and Bremer established an advanced study program with no grades, no tuition, no transcripts, through which over 180 students pursued knowledge over a five-year period, purely for the sake of learning. While it may not have matched Jefferson's education, it was a good start.

Claude repeated that same pattern when it came to the search for a vibrant, stimulating, secure community. If you can't find it, build it. But what to build?

He embarked on a global study. He talked about it with many people, and in the mid 1980's word of his pursuits got back to Libby Rouse, Jim Rouse's wife when they were developing the 80,000 population town of Columbia. Libby invited him to speak in Baltimore, and afterwards asked Claude to promise than do more than just talk. "Those are things we wanted to do in Columbia, but the industry was too rigid at the time". However, the crash of 1987 caused Claude to put the subject on hold as he concentrated on keeping his software businesses alive. By this time, his software companies were developing and selling to local governments, giving him a good insight into how local governments work and think.

Claude got a break in 1995 when he secured funding that enabled him to stop working for two years (he had built up five computer software companies starting in 1980) so he could devote full time to asking the question. He began that research with an unusual premise. "Let's pretend that no one had asked the question before; there are no experts, no books... go to the people." This was not much different than his experience in 1980 with the package software business when it fact it was a new industry, and there were no experts or books. Some of the most creative work happens before the experts emerge to classify and articulate the rules.

So he went out into the field. He spoke with ordinary (and extraordinary) people and began to get a sense of what works, and why. He travelled, looking at places built before the grand experiment of the Industrial Revolution, to find places people loved... and then to understand why they loved them.

During that research many people would point to certain books, most notably Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language" published in 1977. When the work was completed, Claude purchased a copy and learned that he had been studying patterns. However, while Alexander articulated 253 patterns, Claude found his vocabulary of patterns went further as a framework emerged that ultimately became the VillageTown.

Claude then moved with his family to New Zealand in late 1997, where by necessity he began to master the art of vernacular building. Conventional building materials in New Zealand were far more expensive... sheets of plywood over NZ$100, and labor intensive manufacturing caused him to explore alternative construction methods. He designed and built a large home, studio, office and workshop for himself and his family. In the process, he learned the difference between buildings designed by professionals and buildings designed by the person writing the checks at the end of the week. Reducing complexity, designing for a wider margin of error and using a single bulk material so the same builders could do more of the work contributed to lower costs and a more beautiful, higher quality result.

At the same time he was supervising the work, Claude became director of a non-profit charitable trust that found itself in the middle of a major challenge to the largest local government in the country over a proposed development that managed to alienate almost every faction of his 8,000 population island community. As the fund manager for the court challenge (that they won), it proved a brilliant opportunity to learn how zoning rules are made and what is deemed important by local government planning officials.

In early 2006, Claude resumed his work on VillageTowns when he began the research to write "How to Build a Village". Travelling to Europe and America to collect 7,000 photographs to illustrate the patterns, it took 18 months to complete the book. When it was published, it was brought onto the market quietly to see how it would fare. The response was rapid and global as one on-line review sparked viral marketing that saw readers spread the word. Claude was invited to speak at gatherings, conferences and the TED event held in Sydney, Australia. He was flown into regions to tour, present, and to meet with the public and with officials to assess the potential for VillageTowns in their region. The circle of Village Stewards grew, forming the core of the Village Forum, and projects sprung up in Australia, Austria, New Zealand and the USA. Former Secretary of the Interior, Stewart L. Udall (1920-2010) agreed to serve as Chairman Emeritus of the Village Forum.

In 2010, Claude's second book, "Life Liberty Happiness" was published. Unlike the first book, which was large, heavy and comprehensive, this second book is told as a story... the story of a town planner in the town of Blandville who comes to realize what a mess his fifty years of suburban planning has wrought. Enroute to a retirement home because he crashed his car and they took away his license, his driver stops for lunch at a VillageTown, which they tour. The rest of the book finds him meeting many different people who tell him and the reader about their VillageTown. A number of the people who tell their story are real people who wrote or spoke their own story - most notably Stewart Udall who recorded his story nine months before he died at age 90.

Now, Claude is about to finish a third book: "VillageTowns - the next step" which provides a detailed manual for those who are ready to begin work on their own village. To learn more, see www.villageforum.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good habitat for humanity, April 5, 2008

By 

R. Austerberry (Brisbane, AU) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Build a Village, 1st Edition (Paperback)

Book Review - 'How to build a village'.

"From questions a dialogue began, first as an interest, and then as a passion, and now as a mission. Why can't we live in places that offer a good life for all, for all ages and incomes; places that remain interesting and beautiful?"

After 40 years of asking questions, Claude Lewenz offers his distilled wisdom on building a better place to live; a place called a village. This village majors in quality of life; and the design reflects centuries of practical wisdom. Claude's vision assumes design for sustainablity, and enduring appeal; when established it will personify the phrase "A thing of beauty is a joy forever".

Building good human habitat is a lofty goal, a forgotten art, a policy minefield and a daunting task. Claude presents an attractive vision, dodges most of the mines and offers enough information to substantially assist anyone wishing to get started.

The book is written for the intelligent layman, with specific chapters addressed to potential residents of varying demographics, policy makers, regulators, professionals, farmers and investors. In this it works fairly well, although it may be a little inaccessible for those who aren't used to reading 240 pages on the same topic. 'How to build a village' is not yet the handy brochure you can give to everyone, but it is an excellent manifesto for those willing to really 'get it'.

'Get what?' I hear you ask... Simply this: that to thrive from now on, our best course is to ditch suburbia as we know it, and set up our lives in convivial walkable villages wherein cars are verboten. These villages are not just ecovillage or cohousing enclaves for 50 or 100 people, but bustling small townships of five to ten thousand, so well designed that they could replace current cookie-cutter housing development as the primary way of catering for population growth.

'How to build a village' is a comprehensive rethink of how we live, solving multiple problems in its design. Without cars it is charming and pollution free; leading edge design ensures connectivity and sustainability; multiple plazas give character and focus; nearby farmers ensure nutritious local organic food; 5000+ people ensure a strong economic base; careful design allows aging in place; smart process cuts establishment time to less than 10 years; thoughtful planning looks to see the village last beyond seven generations; parallel markets ensure artists or young parents are never priced out of a home; a budget for artists ensures beauty in surroundings.. This is generic human settlement design, done well.

For those who consider ecovillages or cohousing to be a similarly comprehensive rethink there are three points worth noting: scale, governance and intentionality.

1.Scale. A Village holds about 100 times as many people as an ecovillage, giving it economic gravitas; we're talking about a settlement that can become close to self-sufficient in its own right; one where you have a very good chance of finding a job.
2.Governance. Small communities often operate on some variant of consensus, which gets very hard to manage for more than 30 or so people. Realising this, Claude proposes the more mainstream idea of representative democracy, with legislative, executive and judicial branches of government and attendant checks and balances. He does note that "one weakness of representative democracy shows up in the inability to listen" (p130), and provides a process to address that. I would however prefer processes of dialogue and listening to be embedded more deeply in the governance structure (perhaps using the emerging system of sociocracy) so we can move on from the current oppositional politics of mainstream. That said, any system of governance in a community of 7000 will be more accessible to its occupants than our existing national system of democracy.
3.Intentionality. Ecovillages, communes, cohousing developments and the like often require residents to live by some sort of creed, which immediately restricts who comes in. In a village there is no such restriction; the streetscape itself will encourage a sense of community, and connection with place. This is good human habitat by design, not decree...

'How to Build a Village' is an inspiring and close to comprehensive take on quality human habitat which will go a long way to enabling anyone to become a founder. When the next edition comes out however, I'd like to see a discussion of options for renters, a wider discourse on governance, and an integration of the principles of Permaculture. As a design system which sets out how to live within the energy flows of nature, Permaculture has no peer - and can scale from a back yard to a continent if required.

You can purchase a paperback version from Amazon; otherwise buy a case of the hardcovers from Claude himself and redistribute them. For further information visit www.villageforum.com.

Buy the book. Then found a village. Someone's got to do it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute Must Read for ALL developers and architects in this era!, January 7, 2010

By 

L. Lobbestael "Festina Lente" (Vancouver, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How to Build a Village, 1st Edition (Paperback)

For all visionaries, well, even ordinary people that care about the future of your culture, regardless of the country you live in, and for those who have enough foresight to see the eventual erosion of cultures in 'non-Westernized' societies as a result of corporatisation and consumerism, PLEASE read this book! Claude gives some excellent ideas and a well thought out framework on how to properly build and develop! Let's face it, the earth's population is increasing, and there is inevitably going to be infrastructure development and growth, so let's rethink how it is done and how we can make it more nourishing for the human experience while we are on earth.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Make a village the center of your world, January 4, 2009

By 

Donna Long "Naturalist and Blogger" (SE Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How to Build a Village, 1st Edition (Paperback)

I received my copy of this book about two days ago. I can barely stop reading to eat or sleep.

This is a great book. It gives concrete ideas and places to start. The information on plazas is particularly useful and enlightening. If you have a A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series), this book will make even more sense as, How to Build a Village expands on the "patterns" with contemporary photographs.

There is also a section on village planning by indigenous communities. How to Build a Village might be highly useful in helping to eliminate poverty and build viable culturally reflective communities.

If you are an ordinary citizen involved with town planning, a community activist, a builder or landowner, this book will help you and your colleagues create beautiful sustainable places to live.


I remember a quote I read when I was a young girl: "Run away to a village and make it the center of your world." If that seems ideal to you, you'll love this book.