Village Homes: A Case Study In Community Design

Mark Francis, FASLA is professor of landscape architecture at the University of California, Davis. Trained in landscape architecture and urban design at Berkeley and Harvard, his work has focused on the use and meaning of the built and natural landscape. Much of this research has utilized a case study approach. He developed the case study method for the Landscape Architecture Foundation and serves on their Land and Community Design Case Study Initiative National Advisory Board. Abstract: Village Homes is one of the most publicized built examples of sustainable community design and landscape architecture in the United States. Designed and developed by Michael and Judy Corbett in the 1970s, Village Homes consists of 242 singleand multifamily residences on sixty acres. Houses are planned as energy-conserving buildings around common open spaces with play areas and shared gardens. A sizable part of the development is devoted to community open space, including orchards, vineyards, and play areas. Most of the landscape is designed as an edible landscape and is owned and actively managed by its residents. Seen early on by local planners and bankers as a high-risk development, Village Homes today is one of the most desirable and economically successful developments in California. It offers many design and planning lessons useful for community design and landscape architecture. While widely studied and well documented, its impact has not been fully reviewed. The purpose of this case study is to make this knowledge available to practitioners and researchers as well as to provide a critical review of the project’s successes and limitations. This case study follows a format developed for the Landscape Architecture Foundation (Francis 1999a, 2001a). This is one of three prototype case studies being developed for LAF’s Land and Community Design Case Study Initiative (Francis 2001b,c; Francis 2002). It is intended as a prototype place-based case study that will aid others in developing cases of natural and built landscapes.