Principles of Community Design
©VERMONT DESIGN INSTITUTE 2011
Principles of Community Design
Observation of Underlying Patterns and Spatial Forms have led to the
following Design and Planning Concepts:
CIRCULATION
RESTORING NATURE
STRENGTHENING THE
CENTER
DEFINING THE EDGES
CONNECTIVITY
5 Principles of Community Design
Premises & Assumptions
Vermont Design Institute developed its 5 Principles of
Community Design based on work with Vermont towns
over the last 20 years.
These Principles are based on the following
Premises:
Collaborative Process
Economic Opportunities
Alternative Energy and Transportation
Closing the Loop
Ecological Footprint
Community Knowledge
and Assumptions:
Re-structuring Place
Engagement and Empowerment
Holding a Vision
5 Principles of Community Design
Collaborative Process
Community Design is a collaborative process with the goal of
improving the quality of life for all community members—from
the smallest salamander to our own selves.
Salamander crossing, Monkton
Work group - EnVision Montpelier
5 Principles of Community Design
Economic Opportunities
Effective Community Design creates economic
opportunities for local residents at different scales of
interest—from global connections to bioregional needs
and local solutions.
Pleasant Street / Farmer’s Market, Morrisville
5 Principles of Community Design
Alternative Energy and Transportation
Building sustainable communities depends on implementing
alternative forms of energy and transportation. We need to
break our dependency on fossil fuels and invest in healthy
strategies and technologies. We need clustered housing and
walkable communities.
5 Principles of Community Design
Closing the Loop
Sustainable lifestyles include changing our daily patterns,
consumption habits, and production technologies to
accommodate “closing the loop” and living in a no-waste
society.
5 Principles of Community Design
Ecological Footprint
Sustainable community
landscapes allow for protection of
open space, regeneration of
native vegetation, stormwater
mitigation, increased green space,
local food production at various
scales, and sensitivity to publicprivate zones.
5 Principles of Community Design
Community Knowledge
Successful community design increases community
knowledge of local history, cultural landscape, and
sacred ground.
5 Principles of Community Design
Re-structuring Place
We need to re-structure our decision-making to meet the
needs of the 21st Century. This means changing our
patterns of habitation, transport, energy, water, waste, and
food systems.
5 Principles of Community Design
Engagement and Empowerment
Individual empowerment and
reconnection to place leads to
personal engagement in placemaking and the transformation
of what’s possible.
Illustration from Focus the Nation
design charrette Burlington / UVM
partnership 2008.
5 Principles of Community Design
Holding a Vision
People care and have an
amazing strength of vision
and love for Earth if given
the chance to be heard.
5 Principles of Community Design
Strengthening the Center
5 Principles of Community Design
What is Strengthening the Center?
Strengthening the Center happens when the
physical, historical and experiential strengths of a
community are defined and enhanced to build a
confluence of energy and identity.
UNDERLYING PATTERNS AND ELEMENTS
Patterns of Place: Density, diversity, complexity
Community Engagement: Leadership, empowerment, equity
Regional Identity: Landmarks, focal points, defining views
Cultural Layers: History, stewardship, opportunity
Community Fabric: Solids, voids, gaps, textures
5 Principles of Community Design
Defining the
Edges
5 Principles of Community Design
What is Defining the Edges?
Defining the Edges happens when the limits of a place
are identified and held as gateways, boundaries, and
form-giving functions.
UNDERLYING PATTERNS AND ELEMENTS
Natural Boundaries: rivers, ridgelines, soil conditions, vegetation,
topography, open expanses, tight borders...
Human Constructions and Conditions: bridges, highways, rail
lines, focal points, fortress walls, viewsheds, walkability, etc.
Spiritual Meaning: spatially-defined relationship to the universe
through myth or ancient planning, a sacred mountain or view, a set of
particular distances can define a boundary of place.
5 Principles of Community Design
Circulation
5 Principles of Community Design
What do we mean by Circulation?
Circulation is the movement within a city, village, or
neighborhood. just as our own circulatory system flows
within the body, this is the system by which elements flow
in and around our communities feeding, fueling, and
networking one place to another.
UNDERLYING PATTERNS AND ELEMENTS
Linear Elements: Power, gas, sewer, and water utility lines;
vehicular and rail lines; pedestrian patterns
Organic Patterns: Animal tracks, hiking trails, stream and river
networks, stormwater runoff, wind directions, sun paths, soil types
Overlapping Networks: Intersection of built and un-built
elements, layering of needs and desires, complexity of living
systems
5 Principles of Community Design
Connectivity
5 Principles of Community Design
What is Connectivity?
Connectivity is the linkages and connections of a town or
neighborhood to its surrounding neighbors and larger bioregion. Connectivity is the outreaching arms linking the
center of a community to the outside world—whether
through systems of food, energy, friendship, trade, or
transport. It is a relationship.
UNDERLYING PATTERNS AND ELEMENTS
Continental Landmass: geopolitical identity, bioregions
Infrastructure: media, telecommunications, energy grid,
transportation
Movement of People: history, trade, exploration, colonization,
hegemony, tourism
Trade Systems: goods and services, military and building products,
food systems
5 Principles of Community Design
EnVision Montpelier: Connectivity
Field Hockey at
Vermont College in
Montpelier 1975
Building community places
with a view to the future as
well as grounded in common
language includes cofounding youth centers,
community gardens, theater
and music spaces,
recreational places through
active decision-making and
multi-generational
participation.
Connecting across
generations—both into the
past and into the future
allows us to understand our
roots in history and engage
the next generation in
visioning the future
Recommended Ideas and Practices
The mountains and rivers connect us physically and
emotionally—our stories are full of memories, events, and
idealism—we thrive on sharing, exploring, and making
whether the activity is quinzees, tree houses, canoeing down
the river, building a dam on it, or, arguing over cell towers and
highways… Linkages to one another and family across the
globe is supported by infrastructure and we use it every day.
Our choice is to develop it as non-invasively as we know how
so that our future generations may also thrive and tell stories
about the world they know.
Connectivity includes:
• Movement of people through history: Montpelier was
chartered in 1781 to settlers from Massachusetts who settled
the North Branch River at Elm Street in 1787. In 1805
Montpelier became the Vermont state capitol
• Land formations: the geologic basis for place, the
confluence of rivers…
• Telecommunications and Power grid: this includes energy
production and distribution; telephone lines, cell towers, and
satellites; gas lines; etc.
• Sun paths, weather patterns, and topography link us to our
climate, bio-region, and vibrant ecological systems.
• Closing the Loop…
UVM Community Design Studio: Footprints toward Sustainability Project
Winooski River Through
Town Montpelier, 1911
Flood events can be
dramatic economic and
human disasters,
rebuilding is not always
easy; Montpelier can be
defined by multiple
flood events—her
relationship to the river
is very personal
Drawings by Montpelier High School students
showing ideas for student center, community
greenhouse, local food production, timeshare
bank, mix-uses, walkable streets, better
connectivity to the bike path, shops and places
for them, cleaning up the river so it can provide
more opportunities, music venues, and
recreational places…
Not all shelters
need be
permanent to be
meaningful or
beautiful—a
quinzee for
example is such
a place
“Working towards sustainability through design-thinking and community participation”
ww.vermontdesigninstitute.org
5 Principles of Community Design
What is Restoring Nature?
Restoring Nature means bringing natural ecosystems back
into our built-environment. It means designing for and with
nature, rather than against and in control of nature, even
when that forces us to redesign our habits of comfort and
convenience. Ultimately, it means healing our home, Earth.
UNDERLYING PATTERNS AND ELEMENTS
Geologic Formation: Place-functions and intrinsic qualities
Climatic Conditions: Local context, identity, parameters
Watershed and Bioregion: Geopolitical realities and opportunities
Vegetative Cover: Health of forests, fields, soils, waters
Human Endeavors: Sustainability practices and closing the loop
5 Principles of Community Design
Vermont Design Institute
416 Pine Street #E-2
Burlington, Vermont 05401
www.vermontdesigninstitute.org
©VERMONT DESIGN INSTITUTE 2011