Micro Homes - Urban Design and Community Connectivity

If you have yet to read Charles Montgomery's book, Happy City - Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design, you simply must! So much of what Charles has to say and the experiences of the people and places he speaks about in his book are profound and resonate deeply. What is this underlying feeling of disconnection that I am experiencing? How on earth, when I have seemingly everything could I feel unsettled and unfulfilled? Why, when I visit places in Central America and Europe do I feel more a part of the fabric of the community then I do in my own hometown?

Over the coming weeks we are going to share a few excerpts from Happy City to give you a taste of the answers that Montgomery asserts lay within urban design. "Living Little" is about getting out of our enormous, resource consuming, isolated homes and into our communities. It is about connecting with neighbors and fellow community members from diverse demographics and all walks of life.

In this excerpt, a man from Portland Oregon, Mark Lakeman, finds the sense of community he had been looking for in a Lacondon village on the Mexican and Guatemalan border. He befriends the village leader, Chan K'in Viejo, who advised him "to go home and fix his own village". So, he did.

Read the excerpt here: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2013/11/12/fixing_broken_neighborhoods_happy_city_by_charles_montgomery.html