![]() ![]() Largely modeled after the “ radical suburb ” of Reston, Virginia, which itself was modeled after Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City concept, Jonathan’s communal village plan included a high-density core where businesses and services would be centered, and lower-density residential pockets along the outskirts. The planned community of Jonathan, Minnesota, located 30 miles southwest of Minneapolis, was envisioned as a “ Work, Play, Live ” alternative to the kind of poorly regulated sprawl that was by then commonplace, and that eventually placed enormous strain on the natural environment. McKnight was planning a more modest version of an experimental city, but in many ways no less ambitious. While the MXC was taking shape, a conservationist and Minnesota state senator named Henry T. Minnesota Experimental City proposed underground infrastructure (courtesy of The Experimental City, via ArchDaily). The real genius of Spilhaus’ city, however, wasn’t to be found in any specific vision of the future, but in a future that could naturally beget other futures. ![]() There was also a fair bit of planning and schematic work that went into this place, from envisioning a subterranean utilities network and intracity mass-transit system to mandating strict limits of the amount of land that could be paved over. ![]() Recycling, circularity, and reversible design would have been standard, and nary a combustible engine would be allowed within city limits. The MXC presaged things like carbon capture and sequestration systems and integrated internet of things (IoT) solutions. “Our New Age” comic strip, courtesy of The Experimental City, via ArchDaily. It would be a malleable proving ground for new technologies, demonstrating in real time, what could be accomplished when the soundest principles of urbanism and environmentalism were spliced within a functional urban core. His Minnesota Experimental City (MXC) would have been a shining example of intergenerational education, clean energy, and efficient mobility. From his post as dean of the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Technology, in the 1960s, Spilhaus conceived of a new kind of city, modular and self-sustaining, to be located on a 60,000-acre swath of unincorporated land in Aitkin County, Minnesota, roughly 87 miles west of Duluth. On the fringes of that fight, a different breed of urban thinker emerged, one who saw solutions to our environmental woes simultaneously embedded in efforts to make our cities not just better but designed anew.Īs it happens, my adopted state of Minnesota was once home to two experimental cities that should be on the minds of the building community, climate activists, and governments alike.Īthelstan Spilhaus was a futurist, inventor, and syndicated comic strip artist. The era of urban renewal pitted Robert Moses on one side and Jane Jacobs on the other, fighting over the basic principles of urban development and preservation. Cities were considered the source of all our problems: vice, pollution, overpopulation, you name it. ![]() “Who would want to live in a world which is just not quite fatal?” As the movement grew, anarchist factions of the mainstream-led by the likes of Edward Abbey and Earth First! -promoted hands-off approaches so extreme that their isolationist and anti-urban subtext wasn’t too hard to infer. “Why should we tolerate a diet of weak poisons, a home in insipid surroundings, a circle of acquaintances who are not quite our enemies, the noise of motors with just enough relief to prevent insanity?” wrote Rachel Carson. But what happens when all related solutions can be applied within a single, controlled ecosystem, when environmentalism and urbanism are not at odds, but working in concert? Enter the experimental city.Ī half-century ago, the environmental movement entered the modern era with a sense of urgency. The success of one approach has little to no correlation with that of another. These are worthy efforts, and yet, when considered collectively, the onus for solving our climate crisis is being left largely to municipal governments and private actors, making most solutions piecemeal, at best. Oyster reef restoration is occurring at nearly every critical junction along the eastern seaboard, from Florida to Maine. In the evolving campaign to combat climate change, big and bold solutions are increasingly easy to find, from the conceptual “ water smart city ” and ecologist Allan Savory’s vision for greening the world’s deserts to NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to turn part of Governors Island into a “ living laboratory ” for climate research. ![]()
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