PRESCOTT - Imagine clusters of environmental condos within a mixed-use development with retailers and other businesses.
Solar panels on the buildings would collect the sun's energy and rainwater would roll from rooftops and collect in huge tanks for irrigation use. Jeffrey Zucker and Matthew Ackerman with Catalyst Architecture in Prescott are calling their vision "Village Green."
"The whole village will be designed as a tool to most effectively use the sun, the wind, the rain and the people in the most harmonious and efficient way," Zucker said.
Picture in your mind's eye smaller living spaces with centrally located daycare and office space for residents to use, making their lives more energy efficient and less stressful.
It's a concept that's a popular topic for many folks, and Ackerman said people are starting to consider these types of buildings more than ever before.
"It's kind of stunning to me, the shift in awareness," he said. "We hope to see our practice lead the way. Something has tipped the scales."
Permaculture activist Andrew Millison, who works for a landscape architect specializing in environmentally friendly landscaping, has implemented some of these ideas at his Prescott home.
Millison has a 600-gallon tank near his front door collecting rain and grey water.
"I'm still watering from the winter rains. It doesn't look like a drought in my front yard," he said. "I haven't used one drop of city water on my landscape this year."
Like Zucker and Ackerman, Millison said people are warming up to the idea of environmentally friendly buildings and landscaping.
"People are waking up to the looming water crisis all over the American west," he said.
Millison is working on a large-scale version of his project in his backyard, and he says he sees this type of landscaping as a growing trend.
"I really feel like water wise, landscaping will be a necessity in the future because of the diminishing water supplies and ongoing drought," he said.
It all starts with teaching aspiring architects and designers.
Antony Brown, director of the Ecosa Institute in Prescott, is seeing a modest increase in enrolling students interested in learning about green design.
"It's all about a system because basically, a building is a system just like any kind of system," he said. "The sum is greater than the parts."
Even with a small marketing budget, Brown said green architecture is finally hitting the mainstream media.
"It's very much in the public eye right now," he said. "It's really a hot topic."
Institute students have the opportunity to work on real projects with real clients.
"We also integrate nature and the environment into the whole process of teaching about design," he said.
Steps including shading the building from the sun and refraining from installing huge windows that lose energy.
It's going to take a lot of steps and time to get designers, architects, builders and others in the community to change their way of thinking.
"We should be saying lets make Prescott the greenest small town in Arizona," he said. "You can't just say that by changing the light bulbs."
