Dreams of Disconnection : From the Autonomous House to Self-sufficient Territories

The energy autonomy project defies a century-old system: that of the industrial model of large networks which, on the scale of cities or vast territories, comprised the dominant production mode of many utilities – water, sewage, energy – marginalizing decentralized solutions. Today, with the energy transition a vital issue, this unified large technical system is tottering. A new imaginary dimension of the infrastructure is being built within which the world of architecture has taken hold of the energy question, imagining autonomous inhabitable machines, self-sufficient cities, eco-infrastructures and micro-grids. Right from the beginning, these disconnection protagonists have fueled two ambitions: being emancipated from the hold of the large infrastructures and, through a utilities system incorporated into buildings, guaranteeing minimum comfort in water, electricity and heating. Among the figureheads are forgotten personalities and others who are famous, such as John Adolphus Etzler with his autonomous mechanical system of 1841, and Thomas Edison and his electrically autonomous house of 1912. The energy autonomy movement, however, did not reach maturity internationally until after the 1973 oil crisis. Propelled by American counterculture, autonomy spread geographically and became institutionalized, moving from the housing unit to the city and the territory. Alexander Pike’s autonomous house or Jeanne-Marie and Georges Alexandroff’s self-sufficient city attest to the power of this trend, which combined technical virtuosity and the economic, political, social and environmental project. All of them heralded today’s discussions, which this work sheds light on through its historical approach. Why do we live in homes and communities built around the century-old industrial model of large service networks that use polluting resources? For more than a century, creative architects and planners have dreamed of decentralisation and self-sufficient living, not to cut themselves off from society, but to invent new modes of consumption and to rethink collective public services around common environmental values. In a time of climate crisis, changing society means changing energy infrastructures. Dreams of disconnection tells the story of this strand of design and planning, from its pioneers in the late nineteenth century to those applying similar ideas to tomorrow's technology two hundred years later. Lopez takes in many a utopian visionary in her tour of dreamers of disconnection, from theorists and architects to industrialists and engineers. Technology and design are the centrepieces for these projects, and their complexity, particularly around sustainable supplies of energy, food and water, so often find solutions in aesthetics. Whether these models were based around single homes or whole cities, Dreams of disconnection reveals that there is much to be learnt and marvelled at in the history of self-sufficient design. Front matter 1 Contents 6 List of figures 7 Acknowledgments 15 Introduction 18 Part I: Connection versus disconnection 24 Capturing territories through energy distribution 26 Being disconnected: genesis of a new technical utopia 88 Toward energy emancipation 122 Part II: The energy autonomy movement, 1970–80 168 Counterculture radicalism 170 Alexander Pike and the Autonomous Housing Project, 1971–79 214 The self-sufficient city 240 Critical technology: a problematic development 269 Electricity micro-grids: a tool for the energy transition? 308 Index 334 This book offers a history of energy autonomy and small infrastructures in the field of architecture and urbanism from the end of the 19th century to the present day. -- .