I left a comment on your Greenprophet post on UDLU, but it didn’t show up yet, or immediately. I guess it is set up for comment moderation. Anyway, I hope it shows up — I included several links to stories that I have come across in my UDLU research.

Hope all is well on your side of the globe. It’s been raining cats and dogs in NYC.

Cheers,
Reynard Loki

1) “Growing Food in a Desert City Using Rainwater and Urban Runoff,” Brad Lancaster, Chelsea Green Publishing, July 11, 2009, http://www.alternet.org/water/141141/growing_food_in_a_desert_city_using_rainwater_and_urban_runoff_/

2) “Subdivisions,” Ross Racine, July 28, http://www.swiss-miss.com/2009/07/subdivisions.html
“New York artist Ross Racine creates aerial views of fictional suburbs, examining the relation between design and actual lived experience.” I thought that this kind of layout could be useful in developing UDLU communities.

3) “Europe Eyes Africa for Solar Power,” Paul Voosen, Scientific American, July 22, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=solar-thermal-power-europe-meditteranean-sea&sc=DD_20090722
“By 2050, massive solar thermal plants, which concentrate the sun’s energy using mirrors to heat steam-generating media, would sprawl across the Sahara and Middle East.” If so, these locales would be perfect places for UDLU communities.

4) “Why Our Next Fuel Source May Come from Our Own Waste,” Greg Breining, Yale Environment 360, July 13, http://www.alternet.org/water/141209/why_our_next_fuel_source_may_come_from_our_own_waste/
Using your own waste to help fuel your UDLU! Awesome.

5) “Rain Zone Moving North,” Christie Nicholson, Scientific American, July 2, http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=rain-zone-moving-north-09-07-02&sc=DD_20090702
“the now arid Galapagos Islands had a very wet climate about 400 years ago.” Looks like UDLUs will be more necessary in the southern climes.

6) “Migration and climate change: A new (under) class of travellers,” The Economist, June 25, http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13925906
“Victims of a warming world may be caught in a bureaucratic limbo unless things are done to ease—and better still, pre-empt—their travails.”

7) “Green Power Takes Root in the Chinese Desert,” Keith Bradsher, July 2, New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/energy-environment/03renew.html
“This oasis town deep in the Gobi Desert along the famed Silk Road and the surrounding wilderness of beige sand dunes and vast gravel wastelands has become a center of China’s drive to lead the world in wind and solar energy.”

8) “New Washing Machine Uses Only 1 Cup of Water,” Alastair Jamieson, The Telegraph (UK), June 25, http://www.alternet.org/water/140818/new_washing_machine_uses_only_1_cup_of_water_/
“The appliance, which could save billions of litres of water a year, has been developed at the University of Leeds.”

For a regularly updated list of related articles, check http://www.udlu.org.

Maurice, I don’t think UDLUs are for everyone or even intended for mass migration living. But it is an interesting concept and the design is cool.

Who’s your cousin? Names! names!

While it is great for cooling in the summer and warmth in the winter (he also has a Franklin Stove to provide heat), trying to sell that place is a bit problematic, as he has found out – it’s like selling the land, and throwing in the house for free!