The following brief project descriptions from the US are intended to provide readers with a sense of the spectrum of work with which Transpolis is engaged.  Updates to this portfolio are on-going and included examples may not necessarily illustrate the totality of the client work with which we are engaged.

Re-Shaping Suburbia - Greening of Tract Homes from the 1980s.

Urban sprawl’s negative impacts on community, transportation costs, the obesity epidemic and air pollution are becoming better known.  “What to do?” is always the question.  Top-down policy and planning pronouncements from City officials are unlikely in the near future so the answer, we believe, is to begin working from the ground up with individual building owners, neighborhoods and local communities.

Working closely with the City of Scottsdale’s Green Building program and also officials with the City of Scottsdale Fire Department, we embarked on the re-design and re-build of a typical tract home built by the tens of thousands in the early to mid 1980s.  This partnership resulted in a re-built structure which out-performs newer construction and exceeds current energy codes by 35% - all for $91.00 per sf including demolition and removal of demolished materials/recyclable items.  The only remaining elements of the original house are the external walls, the floor slab, the roof trusses and the roof sheathing.

For the first12 months post re-build, energy costs were closely monitored in order to size a photovoltaic array which would produce most of the house’s energy needs over the course of a year.  We worked with PerfectPowerSolar of Phoenix on the design and installation of the 6.7 kW system, which on an annualized basis will produce 12,000 kWh of AC power - slightly more than the house and occupants will consume in that same 12 month period.

For more details click on the image on the left panel

Gila River Indian Community

SInce late 2010 we have been working with the Gila River Indian Community to help address a series of chronic problems in health (diabetes, obesity and related co-morbid conditions), loss of community, lack of enterprise and substandard housing.  Using the lens of habitat and the dire need to change the way it is funded, planned, designed and built, we have been developing with Tribal Elders, the Glia River Business Owners Association and District Housing a new approach to the creations of dwellings.  Any new forms of dwelling need to meet often-ignored social and cultural needs, combat severe climatic conditions in Southern Arizona’s deserts and open up opportunities for new enterprise through Green Building, Renewable Energy, Micros Agriculture and Micro recreation parks.

Our approach builds on the work of Christopher Alexander and others, engaging community members and future occupants in the process of articulating AND designing AND building their own dwellings.  Such a process is not foreign to the Gila River culture - or for that matter to any Native American community.

A small site has been selected as a demonstration venue for new, state of the art dwellings which meet cost, cultural and environmental criteria.  Master planning for this site has begun as has extensive archaeological and oral history research to build a detailed “specification” from which a new desert vernacular can be developed by community members themselves.

Watch this space and blog entries for more details of this evolving project

3D Laser Scanning Technology

Working with Senior faculty and graduate students at the University of Oregon’s Historic Preservation Program, we are advising and assisting the HP program to acquire 3D laser scanning technology to survey and capture detailed spatial data of vulnerable or historic communities and settlements.

The importance of this technology cannot be underestimated.  The ability to help communities, planners and regulators see the results of policy or economic decisions cab be a powerful catalyst for positive change.

Homestead - Desert Farm

This new project poses the challenge of building a sustainable dwelling for a major farmer with 4,000 acres under cultivation south of Phoenix.  The site is remote and the budget is very tight.  The climatic and water conditions and disposal of waste pose significant challenges.

Micro-Parks

This initiative was developed by Harold Brice and involves the creation of standardized Micro recreation places (Micro-parks) where children, under adult supervision, can play and exercise in safety in what would otherwise be environmentally-blighted neighborhoods in Native American communities.

Urban Acupuncture - An approach to Inner City land re-use:  Phoenix, Arizona

This pro-bono project was conducted for a Discovery Triangle initiative on Health and Open Space.  Working closely with Jeff WIlliamson (Senior Conservationist, Arizona Zoological Society

at The Phoenix Zoo) we developed an approach for a grass-roots, highly diverse re-colonization of Phoenix’s Downtown using an “Urban Acupuncture” technique.

Click on the image on the left to download a PDF of the white paper we produced.