City Narrative
Esperanza - City of Hope
The pristine and thriving city of Esperanza (Spanish for “hope”) lies in the majestic southwestern United States near the border of Mexico, and is home to over 888,000 people as of 2210. Since Mexico joined the union as our 51st state, Esperanza has grown explosively, giving hope to our newest citizens from Mexico. Esperanza is designed to give citizens advanced technology with affordable and sustainable homes. Esperanza increases the quality of life for all our citizens by offering state-of-the-art health care, specialized education, and top-notch safety services.
Our high desert city is adjacent to pristine Lake Azul – providing our citizens with fresh, clean water and opportunities to swim and hike. The Avalon Cave system is home base to spelunkers from around the world. In addition, Esperanza provides recreation centers throughout the city for indoor activities.
Healthcare is vital to everyone. In Esperanza, we place urgent care centers in strategic areas throughout the city so our citizens need not travel far to receive superb care. Our centers are equipped with leading edge technology to improve patient procedures, and reduce wait times. Mandatory internships along with robot-guided surgery make Esperanza one of the healthiest cities in the world.
We also improve our citizens’ quality of life with fresh produce. In other cities, produce must be transported from outside the city. In Esperanza, our Vertical Farming Units (VFUs) change the paradigm. In one building, there are aquaponic fish farms, hydroponic gardens, animal grazing, commercial stores, and apartments. These VFUs provide fresh organic food without expensive and energy-consuming transportation.
Hands-on education makes learning easy and fun in Esperanza. Our schools employ virtual reality caves to give students a more tangible experience. There are no set grade levels – everyone’s education is personalized, so people with learning or physical disabilities receive customized instruction. This advanced and targeted learning produces intelligent citizens.
Pollution from power production is history; now, clean eco-energy comes from revolutionary solar roadways. The solar roadways generate and store much more power than needed. They even help protect against terrorist attacks on the power grid. Even if the roadway is completely severed, each individual panel will still generate and transmit electricity via different paths. Power is supplied at minimal cost to all our citizens.
Nano-robotic Fireflies revolutionize safety for citizens. They detect carbon monoxide and other harmful pollutants and can also detect gunpowder and bomb materials. When these items are detected, the Fireflies notify the appropriate emergency responders. Citizens of Esperanza can sleep soundly at night knowing that the Fireflies are on patrol.
Esperanza has high-tech health care centers, hands-on education, leading-edge crime and fire response, world-renowned tourist attractions, and finally, the power independence offered by solar roadways. Esperanza – where every person, whether immigrant, disabled or CEO, has access to state-of-the-art education, top-quality health care, modern infrastructure, and a vibrant community. Esperanza truly gives hope to all of our citizens.
Essay
Esperanza
Esperanza is located in the southwestern United States near the border of Mexico, which is now the 51st state. These newest citizens of America have had a lower economic status for generations, and our affordable, green homes are designed to help them increase their standard of living. The homeowners are able to help themselves and the earth while living in their homes. Our new homes don’t sacrifice aesthetics or durability while providing an inexpensive and green living space.
Many features of the home make this possible, but the most important is our revolutionary green building material, bioplastics. Bioplastics have much in common with their petroleum-based predecessors from the 21st century, but are also biodegradable. Bioplastics are made from algae, a sustainable and renewable resource. Algae grows rapidly and, as an added bonus, takes in carbon dioxide. That’s why it’s grown outside a neighboring city’s coal plant. We buy our algae from them and grow it in our vertical farming units (VFUs).
Although biodegradable, our bioplastics are durable enough to last hundreds of years. Our chemical engineers have produced this varying lifespan by developing a special catalyst that, when applied to the bioplastics, breaks them down so they can be used as mulch on rooftop gardens and in our VFUs. Unless the catalyst is added, the home will last for generations. This virtually eliminates the issue of construction waste and makes it simple to have long-lasting houses that have low impact on the earth. The engineers spent many years developing the best raw material for bioplastics, and then tested each material with various catalysts to accelerate the decomposition process. In addition, the engineers ensured that various fixtures and aesthetic veneers would be compatible. Although bioplastics increase the construction cost slightly over petrochemical-based plastics, the value to the environment is immeasurable.
The manufacturing and construction of our homes create virtually no waste either. There are two types of construction. The cheapest and simplest is prefabrication, where building sections are mass produced in a factory. Prefabrication is much more efficient and green than building each individually. The homes are put together as easily as they are taken apart. Thanks to lightweight bioplastics as the main building material, two workers can raise the walls and place the roof without the use of any heavy construction machinery. The prefab sections are connected using steel Velcro and nano-glue. Though they may not be the cheapest building supplies available, they are some of the strongest. Steel Velcro has an attachment force of 38 tons per square meter.
The second type of construction is more expensive, but allows for extensive customization. A three-dimensional printer uses bioplastics with local materials to produce an exact replica of an architect’s design, resulting in virtually no waste of materials. The printer is used in higher-end houses where unique designs are desired that can’t be replicated using the prefab units.
Although our homes are easily constructed and efficient, they are also extremely versatile and can be configured many different ways. This allows them to adapt not only to the individual homeowners’ needs and diversity of our citizens, but also to the overall needs of the community and environment. Since the homes are prefabricated and so easily adaptable, homeowners can express their creativity and still have a practical living space. Our factory mass produces different styles of bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, and other modules that can be arranged in many different ways to suit an individual’s tastes and needs. All the different styles use common connectors so they can be mixed and matched. They can be stacked to create multiple levels – even attics and basements.
Unlike historical houses, once your home is built, it doesn’t have to stay that way. If you change your lifestyle, you can change your house to suit. Also, as we age, often our health deteriorates and we aren’t as mobile. Our houses can be easily reconfigured to make it easier to accommodate disabilities, and to improve the quality of life of our elderly citizens. Additional modules or houses can be added for family elders instead of relocating them to an assisted living facility.
One traditional downside to plastic materials is aesthetics – a drab, hard, lifeless surface. Our materials engineers have literally covered the problem by layering our houses with materials indigenous to the individual environment: bamboo, wattle and daub, or in our city, adobe. Most of our houses have rooftop gardens or other earth sheltering, creating a façade that helps our citizens feel more connected to the environment. The inside of our houses can also be covered, hiding the featureless plastic and adding to the positive aesthetics of our homes. Another practical coating is Nansulate, a nano-acrylic resin that contains micron-sized particles of xerogel, formed by evaporating liquid from alcogel. Alcogel is also used in the making of aerogel, which is already known as a tremendous insulator. Nansulate makes an effective insulator after just three coats.
Although our green living space is the main ingredient to our sustainable city, our city infrastructure has been modernized as well. Pollution from power production is history; now, clean eco-energy comes from revolutionary solar roadways. The driveways generate and store all the power needed for each home at minimal cost to all our citizens.
Water reuse is another innovative part of Esperanza’s residential infrastructure. All non-potable water from sinks, toilets, other appliances, and cisterns flows into a holding tank beneath the house. This is the start of the “Toilet to Tap” water recycling system. All waste water is purified for reuse within the house. Inorganic solids are routed to the landfill, and organic solids are treated for pathogens and used in our VFUs.
Esperanza's bioplastic, modular, environmentally-adaptable homes assist our newest citizens to start living the American Dream. When you move to Esperanza, you open a shining window of opportunity for you, your family, your community, and, most important of all, the earth.
Our name says it all: we are hope.
References:
1. Stephen Steiner (2002). Zero Gravity Aerogel Formation. Retrieved Dec 2009-January 2010 from website: http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~aerogel/aboutaerogel.html
2. Jeremy Hsu (2009, September 4). Super Strong German Steel Velcro. Retrieved Dec 2009-January 2010 from website: http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-09/steel-velcro-not-sneakers
3. European Bioplastics, successor to International Biodegradable Polymers Association and Working Groups. “European Bioplastics”. Retrieved Dec 2009-January 2010 from website: http://www.european-bioplastics.org/
4. Massey University (2007, April 6). Science Alert Cheaper Solar Cells. Retrieved Dec 2009-January 2010 from website: http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20070604-14870.html
5. Pete Etchart (2009, September 16). “City Planning: Basic Infrastructure”. Lecture.
