Cool stuff for the day.

From the Good Magazine blog, Inhabit.com and Dwell have announced the finalists of a fantastic competition called Reburbia.  Participants were invited to consider how we could re-envision declining suburbs.  According to the contest description:

In a future where limited natural resources will force us to find better solutions for density and efficiency, what will become of the cul-de-sacs, cookie-cutter tract houses and generic strip malls that have long upheld the diffuse infrastructure of suburbia? How can we redirect these existing spaces to promote sustainability, walkability, and community? It’s a problem that demands a visionary design solution and we want you to create the vision!

Here are the  winners:

Turning McMansions into Biofilter Water Treatment Plants,

Rezoning suburban residential areas to include commercial ventures

and

Creating Big Box agriculture defined as: turning big box store parking lots into farms, the interior of the stores into greenhouses and restaurants, and many of the existing structural details into renewable energy generators.

Looks nice, but the big question is how you frame these changes so that local governments and NIMBY types are receptive. If anyone knows of any places where these types of ventures are happening, shoot me an e-mail.