According to Bustler, Inhabitat just announced the Top 20 finalists of ‘the first ever Reburbia competition: a design competition dedicated to re-envisioning the suburbs.’

‘With the current housing crisis, the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, and rising energy costs, the future of suburbia looks bleak. Suburban communities in central California, Arizona and Florida are desolate and decaying, with for sale and foreclosure signs dotting many lawns. According to the US Census, about 90% of all metropolitan growth occurred in suburban communities in the last ten years. Urbanites who loathe the freeways, big box stores and bland aesthetics stereotypical of suburbia may secretly root for the end of sprawl, but demographic trends indicate that exurban growth is still on the rise.

In a future where limited natural resources will force us to find better solutions for density and efficiency, what will become of the cul-de-sacs, cookie-cutter tract houses and generic strip malls that have long upheld the diffuse infrastructure of suburbia? How can we redirect these existing spaces to promote sustainability, walkability, and community? It’s a problem that demands a visionary design solution and we want you to create the vision!’

Reburbia invited architects, urban designers, renegade planners and imaginative engineers to design future-proof spaces and systems using the suburban structures of the present, from small-scale retrofits to large-scale restoration.

Reburbia’s jury comprises Jill Fehrenbacher (founder of Inhabitat.com), Sarah Rich (editor at Dwell magazine), Fritz Haeg (author of Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn), Geoff Manaugh (author of BLDGBLOG and The BLDGBLOG Book), Thomas Ermacora (founder of the CLEAR Village Foundation), Eric Corey Freed (executive director of Urban Re:Vision), Allan Chochinov (editor-in-chief of Core77.com), and Paul Petrunia (founder of Archinect.com & Bustler.net).

‘From the practical to the provocative and the incredible to the just plain bizarre, we’re pretty stoked about the caliber of creativity and the sheer beauty of some of these renderings so check them out!,’ say Reburbia’s organizers. ‘Let us know which concepts you’re rooting for and please feel free to post up your picks for the winner as well.’

The following projects are some of the 20 Top Finalists:

Parasite Catalyst – Freeway Wind Turbines By Joseph De Le Ree:

‘The highway system that dissects Phoenix is expansive. While connecting 515 square miles of the Sonoran desert, to support our sprawling culture, the valley freeways divide communities. My catalyst proposes to retroactively collect royalties on the land taken from social interaction. The design is a retrofitting replacement of the horizontal steel tube that currently holds freeway signage. The replacement will house two horizontal axis wind turbines that will be powered by the turbulence created from the passing cars.

Parasite- an organism that lives on or in an organism of another species, known as the host, from the body of which it obtains nutriment.
Catalyst- element that causes activity between two or more persons or forces without itself being affected.

Average vehicle speeds on the valley highways are approximately 70 mph. Using average annual wind speeds of 10 mph as a baseline, each single wind turbine will produce 9,600KwH of energy annually. This power production estimate will increase exponentially with an increase in wind turbulence speed. I believe that the wind stream created over the freeways by our primary mode of transportation will create an average annual wind speed well beyond the baseline of 10 mph.

There are two ways in which the power could be used: supply the power directly to the grid to supplement current energy supply, or use the power locally to aid in producing a community hub for social interaction.’

AIRBIA – A Suburban Airship By Alexandros Tsolakis & Irene Shamm:

‘Airbia proposes a new eco-friendly and efficient transportation system linking the suburbs and city centre. Corresponding to the lack of coherent public transportation in the majority of the sprawling cities, a set of airships is designed to form an additional network over the urban tissue.

The proposed network bases its flexibility on the limited required infrastructure (just overground platforms) and facilities, easy hovering, landing and passenger access. The target is to develop a set of routes covering nodal points of the suburbia, traveling all the way to the borders of the city centre creating a ring around it. This network would potentially replace the use of cars and trains as transportation between the suburbs and the city centers.

Being inspired by the zeppelin technologies, the proposed airship engages the idea using helium to hover, which is proven to be a sustainable and economical approach.
The proposed airship has a capacity to carry 400 people and travel with an avarage of 150 km/h speed on a hight between 30 – 500 meters. Instead of having a major airship station, Airbia proposes a more dispersed network of station-platforms, that constist of staircases, lifts and ticket spaces. This way the system becomes much more flexible, since these drop off – pick up platforms can be placed almost anywhere in the city.’

T-Tree – A Towering Community of Sustainable Residences By Adil Azhiyev & Ivan Kudryavtsev:

‘For our T-trees social housing project we used the concept of a “tree”. It is not a totally new idea, others worked with the concept in the 70s and 80s. The whole visual image of a building is constructed with two interwoven design principles. The first is supporting a core – the central block that contains the elevator and the stairs. The second is the communication module. As the trunk of the tree, which is where the blocks are mounted a branch with leaves, in this project – it is communication modules.

With a future of increasing energy, living costs, climate change, high population density, urbanization it is no surprise that we are now seeking new solutions. Everyone wants to live in a green, sustainable environment in suitable house, with low construction costs.

The basis of the apartment is a cubic shaped living module with 3m sides.
At the request of the opportunities and possible variations of easy assembling, replacing, or adding extra module depenidng of a family needs, made in recycled materials (wood, plastic, glass, aluminium), each prefabricated module consist in build-in facilities, furniture, toilets, shower, kitchen etc. depending on function of each cell, also wind mills are additional modules on the top, produce energy which cover 25% of required energy.

The module remains unchanged, which makes assembling easier. For people with disabilities, entrance in each floor will be aligned with elevator entrance.’

Online voting closes on August 18th.