In a small Virginia town, the future of sustainable living has arrived
Washington, D.C. - High utility bills. Temperature-controlled air. Allergen-laden carpets. You won't find any of these within a small cluster of homes in Virginia, where 11-foot Bird of Paradise plants grow in the atrium, recycled rain water fulfills household water uses, and everyone from NPR too Washington Post has stopped by for tours.
In his new release “Sustainability: A Personal Journey to a Built Sustainable Community...and an Amazing Picture of What Life Will Soon Be Like (January 2010), the go-to expert for sustainable living, Stuart W. Rose, Ph.D., shared the story of building Garden Atriums – what many believe to be the most sustainable living community in the US.
“I am sitting and writing in a home that is quite different from what most homes look like today,” says Rose. “I live in a house that has virtually no utility bills, has a tropical garden in its center that oxygenated and purifies the air, and is a joy in which to live.”
The journey from vision to reality wasn't an easy one, however. Rose and his wife and business partner, Trina Duncan, received rejection after rejection for bank loans, and many doubted the homes' feasibility. But none of that dissolved the couple's vision. Today, Garden Atriums has succeeded in a time when most real estate has faltered, growing from one home to seven and then from two residents to 15.
“To ease the transition from what's familiar and comfortable – but clearly not sustainable – to a system that is sustainable and even more comfortable, we need to experience another alternative,” says Rose. “Not to hear about it or read about it ... experience it.”
Unlike many chilling accounts raising the red flags for climate change and environmental erosion (think Elizabeth Kolbert's 2006 breakout hit “Field Notes from a Catastrophe”), “Sustainability” presents a tangible living solution from a man living out the change. And the first time ever, he lays out the step-by-step process he and his wife took to get there, offering an inspirational yet realistic call to arms.
“Virtually every source sees the trauma signaling the end of one era of humanity, followed by the beginning of a new – and very positive – age of evolution of our species,” says Rose. “And the best news? By committing ourselves to sustainable living, we'll realize a better quality of living than we would ever could have imagined.
STUART W. ROSE earned his doctorate in Organization Development from Michigan State University, has been a professor on three major universities, and is currently an educator and consultant to architects, consulting engineers, and other design professionals. He is a registered architect, as well as a graduate structural engineer. For nearly 20 years, he has tracked trends for his engineering and architecture clients. And after noticing the term “sustainability” resurface again and again in his studies, Rose initiated a unique pilot project of sustainable housing. His Garden Atriums project has been featured in nearly two dozen local, regional and national newspapers and magazines, on NPR, PBS, and on major regional television programs.
