What if you could generate all the food and energy you need without ever leaving your neighborhood? That’s the vision for ReGen Villages and its first project being built in Almere, Netherlands (a suburb outside of Amsterdam).

The brainchild of entrepreneur James Ehrlich and Danish architecture studio EFFEKT, the village aims to tackle a range of pressing global issues, including rising CO2 emissions, food shortages and the water crisis with a comprehensive approach to sustainable housing. Plans for the village, which should be completed in 2017 and is the first of an estimated 25 being built around the world, include:

Vertical farming

Composting

Aquaponics system that can produce 10x more food than land farming using 90% less water

Mix of geothermal, solar thermal, wind and biomass methods for power

Non-compostable waste turned into power

Off-grid, greenhouse-style housing

With a sustainable community in place, an obvious step for the ReGen Villages would be to set up resource sharing. For example, will they have a Library of Things? A tool library or coworking space? What about a community currency or time bank? These sharing solutions should be a vital part of these off-grid neighborhoods, and help to further strengthen community in them.

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