Infill Architecture
31 January 2006

Buzz words like ‘green architecture’, ‘sustainable design’, and ‘smart growth’ have become so broadly defined and overused that maybe they have lost their impact. For example, a 5,000 square foot home, sited far away from existing infrastructure, may still be called ‘green’ by some if it implements an excessive amount of photovoltaics and uses EnergyStar appliances. True, any effort made toward recycling natural resources should be commended, not criticized. But in this case, the solar panels serve as a billboard proclaiming the idea of sustainable design devoid the paradigm shift that must accompany it.

Infill Development (definition from BUILD): Infill development is the economic use of vacant land, or restoration or rehabilitation of existing structures or infrastructure, in already urbanized areas where water, sewer, and other public services are in place, that maintains the continuity of the original community fabric.

If we were to call out any one feature that most significantly impacts the sustainability of a home, it would be its siting—specifically, infill siting. With less and less land to build on, most developers in America are building outwards, sprawling in exponentially larger rings of new growth. The newer your home, the further out on the ring you are. Instead, developers need to take advantage of the sites that are available in the city, and often at the lowest premium.

Infill sites are those which exist within the urban fabric but are unused either because of vacancy, brownfield status, or lack of imagination. By reclaiming this land within the city, developers are saving resources since these sites are nearby or already connected to infrastructure. And by developing on a site that already exist within urbanity—that is, a site that will never return to nature—you are decreasing the impact human inhabitants have on the Earth, and saving virgin land for those species that have been here before our time.

This isn’t just about trees and animals. More importantly, in the long term these sites are sustainable because of the lifestyle that they support. By living in the city you work or play in, you cut travel cost and associated pollution. You leave your footprint in the shadow of a past generation, reusing what has come before you instead of subtracting more space. When you save money and the environment, everybody wins. When you can do this simply by buying an infill house, it’s easy to commit. This one-time commitment embraces more sustainability than a solar panel does.

If you can only commit to one environmentally sound ideal, the single greatest impact you can make is to remove yourself from the sprawl equation. Infill can be beautiful, comfortable, luxurious—that’s about good design. Then the idea behind the New Urban Home is this: we are claiming that the only way to really develop sustainability is to develop in the infill, and we commit to designing the best infill housing possible.

Sustainable Building Materials