Designing a restorative housing community

What if a residential community could function as a forest, meaning every system that provides energy, shelter, food, and other resources continually restores the larger ecosystem?

This is a tall order given the average family’s immense appetites, all of which can aggravate nutrient runoff, reduce water quality, and strain the electric grid. With the right planning and combination of tools, however, it is possible to design truly restorative communities.

Veridian at County Farm, a new community of 170 mixed-income homes on 14 acres in Ann Arbor, Mich., receives all of its power from renewable solar and geothermal systems. It also provides a compelling case study for how so-called intentional communities can “take a holistic approach to mimicking complex natural systems,” says Matt Grocoff, founder of THRIVE Collaborative, the developer for Veridian’s market-rate housing. (Also present is an affordable housing component.)

A grid-beneficial community

Eco-housing communities typically involve one of several possible strategies to reduce carbon emissions and promote resource efficiency, but Veridian is more ambitious than most. For starters, it uses no fossil fuels to power any building systems. Geothermal wells connect to heat pumps for all space and water heating needs. The housing includes a mix of townhomes, detached houses, loft spaces, and an adjoined complex of 50 affordable apartments. All of these feature rooftop solar arrays, ERVs, induction cooking, EV-ready charging, and other energy- and water-efficient appliances. Lastly, each home is fitted with a compact sonnen battery for storing accrued solar energy and powering the neighborhood at night. That feature may be Veridian’s biggest differentiator.

Ubiquitous solar arrays and hundreds of home batteries help transform Veridian into a virtual power plant (VPP), which integrates multiple sources to power the whole neighborhood and sells excess output to public utilities. Geoff Ferrell, a senior vice president with sonnen, says that pairing conscientious and sustainable design with a VPP allows “those homes to interact with the grid differently than if it were just a home with solar.” By pooling its collective resources, Veridian provides a net-positive benefit for community members and the grid itself. “Most people want to have a comfortable, sustainable, beautiful, and healthy home,” Ferrell continues, “and if we can help them save money and to be a part of a decarbonization and energy transition story … then we’ve done our job!”

Grocoff sought a holistic energy solution from the very start, motivated by a need to “prove we could go beyond net zero,” he says, and deploy a system that could actively demonstrate what our energy transition should look like. “This is one of the first examples of creating a grid-beneficial neighborhood at scale. It harvests energy and uses it with demand response. And with battery storage, the community’s power is a dispatchable asset.”

Timeless and inclusive design

Veridian at County Farm remains a work in progress, with many homes still under construction. Other sections, like the community’s three-story Park Homes and Trillium Loft stacked flats, largely centered around the campus’s central courtyard, have already sold out to new residents. Still, even with such demand, THRIVE knew that the prospect of energy and cost savings alone wouldn’t be enough to drive sales. Thoughtful design would have to be a factor as well. For that, the developer turned to Union Studio, an architecture firm with a reputation for resilient and conscientious design.

“We married Veridian’s goals of technical sustainability with the environmental and social responsibilities of building a real community,” says Donald Powers, AIA, a founding partner with Union Studio. Powers cites the importance of place and creating walkable communities that are less car-dependent, and where residents’ experience is shaped by less ephemeral factors that adhere to current trends. “Sustainability is really about the things that have sustained,” he says. “So, we looked to historical [housing] models and the kind of neighborhoods where people don’t feel the need to plow under and rebuild every 20 years.”

To this point, Veridian embodies a type of lasting and durable aesthetic that is universally appealing, or what Powers labels “aspirational and attainable.” Complementing the development’s more modern elements like rooftop PV arrays, geothermal systems, and grid-friendly infrastructure, Veridian’s varied residential buildings have a decidedly prairie-like vernacular that befits the neighborhood’s central farm stand, walking paths, and native landscaping. It is “a complete vision” in which “every dwelling fronts some kind of public space,” Powers says.

Union Studio’s master planning strategy also took care to “design out” any sense of segregation between the market-rate and affordable housing portions of the community, according to Ben Willis, AIA, an associate principal at the firm. Along the campus’s northern and northwest edges sits the Grove at Veridian, a collection of 50 affordable apartments development by Ann Arbor nonprofit Avalon Housing. Thirty of those units are set aside “for people who are directly exiting homelessness,” wrote Avalon’s executive director Aaron Cooper in a 2024 blog post, which highlights the overwhelming local demand for more attainable housing. 

Due to certain funding mechanisms tied to Avalon’s pursuit of low-income housing tax credits, the Grove technically constitutes a separate development. (It’s notably absent from Veridian’s website.) However, both aesthetically and spiritually, these apartments are as much a part of Veridian’s tapestry as any garden or front porch.

Do as nature does

The property on which Veridian now resides in Washtenaw County was once a county-run residence known as a poor farm, which housed the elderly and disabled. Later, the land also hosted an asylum and a youth prison. Now, nearly two centuries since the county purchased the acreage, Veridian is one of a handful of Living Community Challenge pilot communities. Taking part in the challenge means prioritizing healthy living, thoughtful density, and the flourishing of natural systems.

Notably, in keeping with the Living Community Challenge’s Red List imperative, Veridian is prioritizing the use of Declare labeled products wherever possible. And to honor the Habitat Exchange imperative, THRIVE is purchasing conservation land through a local trust to offset the amount of land that under development.

Still, Grocoff stresses how much he wanted Veridian’s restorative properties to feel tangible for those living there, beyond any energy efficiency benefit or green-labeled product. THRIVE wanted the community to come alive—not in the sense of a crowded city block coming alive, but in the natural systems that envelop Veridian returning to form. “All the compressors [connected to the geothermal system] are inside the homes, so there’s no sound at night on the outside. There’s very low lighting as well. These were deliberate choices,” he says. “It’s not just about stargazing or hearing the crickets; it’s not just about making a more beautiful place for the residents, but all of life.”

This approach is one of abundance and restraint. Whereas many eco-housing or otherwise large-scale sustainable developments proudly place their green features on full display, Veridian’s pastoral setting strikes a different chord. And yet behind the scenes, beneath the earth, and atop the roofs, one of the world’s most restorative and energy efficient communities is coming to fruition. “We have no time left to be asking what's possible,” Grocoff says. “We need to only be asking what is necessary and then figure out how to do it.”

Justin R. Wolf is a freelance writer covering architecture and design. He lives in Maine.