Just launched…

I’ve just launched a design practice in Joshua Tree.

This blog is now archived. Please follow me at Unplugged Diary.

Unplugged Diary

Follow my new Tumblelog Unplugged Diary: Hello, my name is Stephanie Smith. I checked out on Sept 1, 2010. This is the story of what happened next…

The Latest (from Shareable)

I’ve been posting short articles on resource-sharing at Shareable.net. Titles include: The Architecture of Sharing, Dear Facebook, You Call that Sharing? (Towards a Sharing Manifesto), and Finding the Balance. Join the conversation…

Resource-Sharing Book

I’m writing/editing/compiling — let’s call it shepherding — a book on the 20 best ways to share resources among neighbors, friends and extended family, to be published by Shareable in two months or so. The book is a real-time, “best practices” handbook, and to that end we’re culling ideas, info, tips & tricks from resource-sharers on the ground, from Portland to Brooklyn and everywhere in between. If you’ve got knowledge to share, or if you’d like to learn what we’re learning, follow along.

Rent the Nomad Yurt

Ecoshack, my design studio, is renting out our shelter product the Nomad Yurt. Perfect for events, weddings or trade shows. More info at our new website Ecoshack.com.

Earthships

(via Visual Notebook — see also Post-Quake Architecture)

Emma Kunz

Emma Kunz, Healer, Researcher and Artist

Barnraising Group Starting in JT

Let’s team up and start a monthly barnraising group (sometimes called a neighborhood work group). Interested? Drop by the Starlite Courtyard in downtown Joshua Tree, Fri July 16, 2010, 6pm to discuss. There’ll be chips & beer! More info

“Communes” Everywhere

We hope folks will start communes everywhere, so we’ve set up Wanna Start a Commune ‘Meetups Everywhere‘ to help make it happen.

Cul-de-Sac Commune

In 2008 – 2009 I worked with neighbors in Los Angeles cul-de-sacs to start resource-sharing, new-school “communes.”

I was lucky that the project got quite a bit of exposure: It was featured on All Things Considered/NPR (listen to the 5-min podcast); Allison Arieff wrote about it on NYTimes.com, and it was on Huffington Post, Treehugger, Denver Voice, and in Toronto’s Globe and Mail.

Glad to say that a year later the idea is still bubbling out there in America’s suburbs. Here’s a great blog post on the Cul-de-Sac Commune idea from Katherine at Simplifying the Simple Life. She’s digging the new neighborliness she’s feeling. She says:

…the economy sucks and people seem more apt to seek shared resources, barter for services and buy perfectly-good used rather than new items these days. I don’t have actual statistics to back this up, but my hunch is that the local Craigslist has seen an uptick in usage as well, and services like Swaptree, which Lisa recently highlighted, are getting lots of new participants.

This makes me happy for a number of reasons. Like family members who lived through the Great Depression and still fold slightly soiled aluminum foil to use over and over, I hope this recession changes thoughtless resource use and breeds more community-building permanently.

Most selfishly, though, I’m digging the new neighborliness because until now, I’ve felt green guilt about where I live: a cul-de-sac in a suburban subdivision…

…We’ve saved ourselves a lot of wasted cash and the planet a lot of wasted energy simply by walking down the street to our friendly subdivision co-habitants to borrow a chain saw or weed whacker rather than investing in these irregularly-used tools ourselves.

And when it’s a balmy Sunday evening, and I’ve dragged my lawn chair to the cul-de-sac to join the neighbors for a cold one while we watch our kiddos and dogs chase each other around the adjacent yards, I think: This is what living in a community is all about!