We've realized that certain systems aren''t working for us. The way we define value in our current society is often by affluence. The suburbs are a place of the past, stuck in the old idea of the American Dream that has failed. With the new ideas of the millennial generation, we have finally arrived at a new American Dream, and updated the suburbs to fit it. By redefining value to mean social activity, community trust, accessible living spaces and resources for all, and an inclusive celebratory culture that elevates leisure and healthy competition, we have created a new kind of freedom, and an economic system that is neither capitalist nor socialist.

This community has been divided into mini communities, known as "zones", to localize essential activities, which are characterized by a 1 mile diameter and access to the essentials such as farms and farmers markets for sustainable, local food, community events, material repairs and resource sharing, education centers, and transportation by foot, bike, and solar-powered electric car. These are considered walkable zones. The overlapping areas of zones provide room for more densification, as more resources overlap, and are an opportunity for more city-like activity.

Some of the larger houses have been donated graciously part-time by their owners to the community for group gatherings and a central space. This provides a place for physical meeting within a zone, and is integral to areas with less public spaces. Though this seems like a place for community governance, based on our perceptions of governing in 2015 where we usually have a physical building to represent power and presence, this is more a place for leisure and meeting new people, more like a YMCA for zones that don't already have a community center. 

 

Each zone does have community governance, but the convergence of people within a zone is not in a place but virtually. This provides a more time efficient, and thus more inclusive, way of making community decisions and setting communal goals. Each zone sets their own monthly goals, as a loose form of community governance, which everyone in the community agrees on in a virtual meeting via their personal "cellular" "device", which is actually their "handheld" access to data, shown below.

This "device" is really just networked air, which has been filled with signals and can recognize a person and access their individualized information based on their dna. The networked air provides a visual experience for the user, and allows them to see what is going on in their community, whether it is events, or information on agriculture (shown below), disaster prediction information, location of certain tools and resources which are available to you, or other information.

 

The Energy Footprint is a way to make the community competitive and encourage participation in the betterment of one's community. It is a public measure of how much you have contributed, whether it is food production, solar power production, or labor improving digital maps the community uses to find information, and how much you have used, whether it is extensive car rides, or heat usage, etc. There is no penalty for the lowest ranked person, and no reward for the best ranked person, but rather it is a way to encourage intrinsic motivation of the community, much like the measure for steps walked on the iphone's fit bit, which people use for healthy competition today.

This person has clicked the "MAPS" bubble to explore information on potential disasters in their local area. This information helps them prepare against the fickle weather caused by climate change.

 

Other information that has been mapped leads to more information, or more resources, so that the person is enabled to find tool sharing systems, funding, fabrication labs, human resources, people with knowledge who are also excited about whatever project the person wishes to take on, and more.

Oakton is prepared against climate disaster, or "ruggedized", through education and emergency supplies at this center. People in individual households are also equipped to hunker down for various disasters, and structures have been made wind-resistant and flood-proof.

 

While the disaster prevention center is not being used for housing and supplies, the facilities are used as a space for pop-up community programming. The tornado shelter, for example, is used as a nightclub, with an attractive lounge and a lively music scene.

As described above, Community Programming is organized in pop-up events. Certain events are focued on cultural diversity and a celebratory approach to inclusive community politics, such as this fusion cooking event held in someone's home. People nearby are made aware of these events by apps like Meetup, which have been transformed to be more accessible and intriguing to all ages, and existing participatory platforms such as facebook. The floor is made of a new, affordable building material which has been constructed out of old, compacted, sorted landfill material, and is now the most popular material to use for both decorative purposes and affordable, sustainable building.

Here is an example of a Cul de sac being temporarily reused as a place to hold a dance event. Tents and a colorful floor are set up for such an event, while more permanent community systems such as farming and leisure time on the sand go on by nearby houses.

 

(See Heinz Ct, Oakton Virginia as it is now to envision this from what it is now.)

Some people build up their homes into towers, to capitalize on vertical densification and make use of their current status as landowners without compromising the green spaces that are so important to the makeup of Oakton. These towers are made of solar paneled glass, thus acting as energy producers to help cut the energy usage of the mass numbers of people now living in one place. Densification has occurred naturally over the course of the last 30 years as cultural practices such as community gardening and cultural programming, and the practice of transforming spaces, such as with the tornado shelter nightclub, have drawn new people.

 

Media and information access plays a big role in this society. In this scenario, the window has temporarily been transformed into a holographic screen, sharing international news.

Image by Lindsey Zuskin© Using Google Street View.

Transportation within Oakton and between walkable zones is addressed through the communal driverless cars. This function as a combination of carpooling and Uber, and are availble to order through your personal cellular device. The interior of these vehicles are oriented like a circle with several people in the car and the seats all facing the center so that the transport can be a social interaction. Using the vehicle is free, but increases your Energy Footprint. When more people are using the car together, then the energy footprint increases by less. However, walking is encouraged when travelling short distances.

The sidewalks are also made of the new, colorful, revamped landfill material. Here, bikes and pedestrians have space of their own to safely get fto nearby places such as friends' houses and farmer's markets.

The metro line, which has currently been built out to Reston, is built to connect to Oakton and engineered  on a magnetic track, hovering, so that it is high speed and only has to use energy to overcome friction. The roads, which used to be used for this traffic, are now solar sources of energy for this central train. However, people do not live in the suburbs and work in DC as they used to, so there is no need to go to DC daily, since activities and living have been localized in zones within Oakton. The train is only for the off occasion that people travel to DC for a new change of scene, or leisure.