At this point we are all pretty well educated on different elements of sustainable living. But what about an entire community based on large amounts of open space, community gardens and a large array of solar panels to harvest the sun’s energy? It sounds like a fun design project to me. It’s called Twin Buttes and it is currently in development here in Durango (more here and soon here).

Text and image from the Barrett Studio Architects website.

From the designing architecture studio:

“The Twin Buttes Ecovillage is a variable density, walkable community incorporating clustered development. Tucked into the topography with mixed uses, open space, and community gardens, the community is founded on sustainable design principles. Of the 600 acre site, only 120 of the acres are being developed, with the balance of 480 acres preserved as dedicated open space. Located just two miles from downtown Durango, the village will have 595 dwelling units, including 95 permanently affordable units embedded throughout the site. Diverse housing types include multi-family, bungalows, single-family courtyard homes, and AgriLofts(c) – modern loft-like attached homes linked with agricultural land…”

Sounds like a great model to me. I’m very interested to see how this comes together.

I found the community as I hear about a lot of things, via a biking suggestion. I was told about a new trail system right outside the Downtown Durango area and decided to go for a ride. The trail system is awesome! Great sustained climbs followed by a couple fun/flowing downhill session with multiple berms and little gravity drops. You also have a couple of options to shorten the ride if you’re short on time. It looks like more is in development and from where the trail ends right now it is pretty close to connecting with the Overend Mountain Park system (or the test tracks as the older Durango-ans refer to it). If they can tie the two together it will be a pretty epic system on the West of town to rival the Horse Gulch system on the East side of town. Very exciting!

Anyway, on my way back down to the parking lot area I noticed extensive development in the area and some very large, fenced-in gardens. It intrigued me so I took a minute to research a bit what they had going. I might have found my future home in the process.

Some pics from my ride: