PAUL BARNETT DESIGN GROUP
MICROVILLAGES

MICROVILLAGES

Microvillages

Microvillages are a community of homes that cater for all ages from birth to death. They provide a setting for small children and the elderly to interact and support each other and allow for aging in a safe and connected environment. Comprised of Living Pods, Green Rooms and Naturescapes. They are interconnected with community and personal gardens and they are designed with high performance, thermally efficient building envelopes. They provide their own electricity and collect, store, distribute and recycle water. They are an approach to a lifetime of living, and are regenerative in intent for the people who live there, for visitors, and for the environment and habitat in which they are located.

Related Media: Stellulata Co-housing project in Ainslie moves forward as ACT government amends Territory Plan

Watson Microvillage Demonstrate Concept Models

Rural Micro Village
Microvillage Concept Drawing- ICIMOD Design Competition

Social cohesion and fabric of cross-generational village life

Heart at the Centre: Social space
• Community play, gardens, working in nature, preparing food and dining as a community
• Natural landscape

Embrace the Heart: Family Habitat
• Perimeter living pods and clusters to cater for the diversity of family types and across all generations

Peripheral Services: Storage and Connection to the next Village
• Places for the utility, vehicles and supports networks

Happiness and Meaning

Peace, Love and Joy

  • Simple life in the outdoors, always active and in the garden, joy in nature, forest bathing
  • Approaching life with joy, cherish each new day
  • Treat everyone like a brother or sister even if you have never met them before
  • Be part of a community and nurture friendships
  • Practice teamwork, help one another
  • Balance life with rest and activity
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Self

  • What is Happiness
  • What is Meaning
  • Developing Consciousness
  • Becoming aware of the cycle of life
  • From self and unconscious hedonism to social awareness and consciousness about our role in society
  • Express our gifts, our art through creativity (or what some call “work”)

Work

  • Working from the Heart not the Head,
  • Connecting with people through their needs and their level of consciousness,
  • Villages: Working to create Social structure and manifesting village and community in each project,
  • Naturescapes: Providing opportunity to connect with nature and increase natural health

People’s Needs throughout Life

Who are we and how do we change and our needs change throughout our life?

  • Infant: Accept love
  • Child: Push boundaries
  • Adolescent: Explore the world
  • Young Adult: Find a partner
  • Adult: Create a family
  • Mature Adult: Consolidate extended family
  • Senior: Support the young and celebrate life
  • Elderly: Provide wisdom to the young and prepare for life passing, sharing life stories