Community Infrastructure & Affordable Housing
Soho is an example of a “Community Infrastructure” (CI) that could be funded with the operations of modern fiat money. It looks like a “building,” but it is actually a vertical “building site” for 165 individual residential projects each of which is designed, financed, constructed and owned separately. The CI—and the land it sits upon—are owned in perpetuity by a non-profit National Housing Coop. (“National” is important because modern fiat money can only be issued by a sovereign nation.)
The individual building sites within the CI have rolling leases which are renewed each time one of the dwelling units is sold to a new owner. Dwelling owners are free to make improvements to their residences, to build equity in them, and to sell them at a market rate—each sale, however, is subject to a formula which excludes the value associated with the CI itself. Sellers, in other words, can only profit on a calculated “basis” which reflects the value of the dwelling unit alone and any improvements they have made to it.
By this means, the “cost” of land and infrastructure are eliminated from the market-price of the dwelling units within the CI. Depending on location, this strategy could produce stocks of affordable dwellings with market prices reduced by 50-60% or more.
Design-Build Opportunities for small builders
This CI example—Soho in the Sky—was inspired by the romantic notion of moving into an empty loft space in the Soho district of New York City. Empty loft spaces in Soho are hard to come by these days and, no doubt, rather pricey. Soho in the Sky was an idea about changing that, making the experience of living and creating architecture in urban contexts more accessible to everyday people and small design-builders.
The basic unit of the tower is a prefabricated two-story “loft box” which has, as a main dramatic opportunity, a corner balcony outcrop which can be interpreted as either an indoor or outdoor space. The structure of the loft-box makes it easy to stick-build second floor platforms and connect plumbing and electrical runs from any location to the utility core. Each level could also be developed as a separate flat. In other words, the empty loft-box is a blank canvas for creative interior architecture. The empty loft-boxes are stacked to create the tower.
After they are stacked into the tower, each individual loft-box is autonomously developed and completed into a dwelling (or into two dwelling unit flats.)
Co-Housing in the Sky
Each “floor” of the tower is, in fact, a short horizontal pedestrian street bounded on each side by the two story loft-boxes. At one end of the street are vertical elevator towers—including a large, construction elevator for bringing building materials up to each level. At the other end of the street is an open air community space.
Each “street” in the tower is intended to function as a Cohousing Community: the community space is shared by the 11-22 family units on each street. This space can be developed and used as the community chooses—gardens, “outdoor” cooking and eating, playground space, mini-day care—whatever the group can agree to. It can be partially or fully closed-in or left open to the air.
Facet of a modern Green Economy
The tower is built upon, and around, what is essentially a micro-grid power plant and waste-water treatment/recycling facility. Power is generated by a vertical axis wind turbine which is integral with the vertical structure, below grade fuel cell generators, and methane generators which convert the sewage and organic waste produced in the tower. Grey water is collected, treated, and made available to each community space for irrigation. The ground level stories contain services—dry-cleaning, day-care, mini-mart, etc.
Two Towers
To summarize, Soho in the Sky can be visualized as two towers. The first is a vertical community infrastructure—a Commons owned and managed by a national coop. The second tower, organized and supported by the first, is a conglomeration of individually designed, constructed, and owned dwelling units which are maintained, improved, and exchanged in an affordable housing market.