At Better Engineering Corp. we're fixing the dumbest land use in the USA (parking lots).
Turning asphalt heat islands into income-aligned, decarbonized communities.
Conserving farmland for...Farming (agrivoltaics)!
1. People can't afford homes - to purchase, or, if they manage to buy, to then own (due to double-digit, compounding power bills).
2. Existing interconnection model locks in decades of financial support for fossil generation.
3. Existing interconnection 'regs' are stifling the full potential of microgrid innovations.
Solutions must be at SCALE:
First Principles - the Rebuild naturally leads us to an obvious conclusion...Better Engineering.
1. Onsite, automated home building can reduce construction costs by eliminating waste and increasing productivity (which has been negative over decades in construction). Unlike nearly every other major sector, which has seen massive efficiency gains, the home building industry has experienced declining or stagnant productivity for decades. Today, a worker often builds fewer housing units per hour than in 1970. Advanced robotics, 3D printing, and automated framing systems shift factory-level precision directly to the job site.
2. Master-planned communities now CAN be powered ENTIRELY onsite thereby providing energy independence for families.
3. No Mass Grading - it destroys natural topography, vegetation, soil structure and critical biodiversity. Here's how we do it:
Low-Impact Development (LID): Map the site’s natural features before drawing roads or lots. Identify critical areas like mature trees, wetlands, rock outcroppings, and steep slopes to preserve as open space.
Conservation Design: Allocate 40% to 60% of the total land area as undivided permanent open space. This naturally reduces the overall footprint requiring any grading.
Ridge and Contour Routing: Align roads parallel to the natural contour lines of the land rather than cutting straight across them. This minimizes the massive cut-and-fill slopes typically required for street rights-of-way.
Single-Lane Loop Roads: Use one-way loops or split-level roads (where the inbound and outbound lanes are at different elevations) to navigate steep hillsides without massive retaining walls.
Alternative Wastewater Systems: Traditional gravity sewers require deep trenches dug at strict, continuous slopes, which often forces mass grading. Use low-pressure sewer systems (utilizing small grinder pumps at each house) or vacuum sewers that can follow the natural contour of the land just a few feet below the surface.
Micro-Stormwater Management: Instead of grading the entire site to drain into one massive, centralized retention pond, use decentralized bioretention cells, rain gardens, and bioswales throughout the neighborhoods. This manages stormwater right where it falls without major terrain alteration.
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