there are 2 primary conceptual considerations informing the design of the technoburb:

information technology

- the information revolution has changed our lives in profound ways, and will continue to do  so

- one of the ways that these changes will impact our lives will be the blurring of the distinction between where we work and where we live

- the "wired" worker has much more flexibility in their daily lives since they are able to work from their home and on their own hours

- the following design is an attempt to address these issues in relation to the built urban form
 

ecological integration

- any development should work in concert with the natural environment on which it is built

- in the technoburb, working within the local environmental constraints becomes even more important; in a world that is becoming increasingly global, it is of paramount importance to accentuate the 'genius loci' of the places in which we live

- it is the intent of this design to successfully integrate the ecological and built environments, both literally and symbolically

technoburb elements:

smart centre

- acts as the centre for this "wired" community
- residents pay for this feature as other communities pay for a community centre
- this facility features both city and mountain views, grounding it in it's unique geographical location
- residents can come and work at a desktop computer or plug into the information infrastructure with their laptop
- includes meeting rooms where techno-residents can meet with each other or with clients
 

information commons

- the community square where residents can congregate
- the library at one end and the smart centre at the other represent a symbolic continuity of information-sharing from the past, to the present, and into the future
- community services will locate around this square and could include:
    - coffee shops
    - restaraunts
    - medical/dental offices
    - dry cleaning
    - copy centre
    - convenience store
-these businesses can be fully connected to the informaiton infrastructure to allow for maximum ability of residents to "plug in" wherever they are in the community
 

multi-family dwellings

- allow residents to create a highly flexible work schedule
- each unit will be larger than conventional multi-unit buildings to allow for a more suitable live/work spatial relationship
- maximum installed information infrastructure will be standard
- rather than the allowance for a "party room" in each structure, the buildings will have a multi-media enabled meeting room to increase the ability of residents to successfully work out of their homeplace
- in order to increase energy efficiency for these complexes, District Energy Systems is an option to further investigate
 

single family dwellings

- as with the multi-family dwellings, these structures will be designed to provide more specific wori-in-home space and will have the maximum available infrastructure
- parking in these areas will be limited to on-street; there will be no front garages, and back lanes will be unpaved
- the parked cars, when combined with the close setbacks of the building front will provide a comfortable and intimate streetscape in these areas
- these units will be designed with the principes integrated into the CHMC's Healthy House model; they will be fully autonomous for all water, electric, heat, and waste removal requirements