Serenbe Community: Georgia's New Model for Urban Planning
Last Updated: Mar 17, 2025Over 80 percent of the United States population lives in urban areas across the county. Making the transition towards a more sustainable society, then, requires us to rethink how our urban areas are organized and structured. Unfortunately, many urban areas have been negatively affected by gentrification and unsustainable planning. Lower-income residents are often left in “food deserts,” where there is extremely limited access to affordable and nutritious food in a general geographical location. Smaller cities often have inadequate public transportation options, and larger cities can be too spread out, discouraging walking, biking, and other alternatives like carbon-free transportation options.
A recent study by Scientific American found that “residents of just 100 cities account for 20 percent of humanity’s overall carbon footprint, according to a new estimate of carbon dioxide emissions. This share is comparable to worldwide industry-related emissions, showcasing how individual consumption is a major contributor to excess carbon dioxide.”
While cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York have put into motion ambitious sustainability goals and plans, people living in urban areas are still responsible for an enormous amount of greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental issues. In fact, the United Nations recently included urban sustainability as one of their foundational sustainable development goals (SDGs), seeking to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.
The Serenbe Community located just south of Atlanta, Georgia, offers an inspiring example of how urban communities can be just that: inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.
What Makes the Serenbe Community Different?
Serenbe is a unique, experimental green community that was originally designed by the architect Dr. Phil Tabb, who lives in a net-zero house in the community. The founders, Steve Nygren and Marie Lupo Nygren wanted to find a way to preserve and protect the rural land just outside of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Afraid that the Chattahoochee Hill Country would fall prone to expanding urban sprawl, Steve and Marie eventually purchased a large part of the land and began the process of designing sustainable human communities.
Table of Contents
- Housing at Serenbe
- The Blue-Eyed Daisy
The first house was built back in 2004, and today there are over 650 residents living among the 1,000 acres of the natural forest landscape. The Serenbe community is divided into four separate hamlets, each of which incorporates complementary commercial centers.
One of the defining aspects of the Serenbe community is that there is a focus on creating walkable and livable communities that reduce dependence on cars and city commutes. Besides having dozens of locally owned and operated businesses, each of the four hamlets also includes spaces for agriculture, arts and entertainment, and educational opportunities.
Dozens of miles of nature trails connect the homes, restaurants, art and entertainment options, and other businesses. As part of the community living design, each of the four hamlets that make up the Serenbe community offers different features and attributes. For example, the Grange Hamlet is focused on urban agriculture opportunities and has a fully functional 15-acre organic farm that provides a large amount of food to the community through a CSA program. According to Garnie Nygren, one of Serenbe’s founders, “all week long, everyone at Serenbe can eat vegetables that have never been in a car [or truck].”
The Blue-Eyed Daisy
While the Serenbe community has hundreds of sustainable homes, including a handful of fully off-grid homes that are net-zero energy use, the Blue Eyed Daisy is one of the most unique and inspiring buildings in the entire community. This “unofficial meeting place for Serenbe residents” is a small restaurant and bakery that also has the exclusive recognition as the smallest Silver LEED-certified building in the United States.
Due to the relatively small size of this commercial establishment, the Blue Eyed Daisy offers superior thermal performance and energy efficiency through skin and load-dominated conservation strategies. Specifically, the building is built to avoid overheating in the summer by incorporating daylighting with large, energy-efficient windows and natural ventilation strategies. The building offers geothermal cooling and high insulation levels while utilizing passive solar heating to keep the restaurant warm during colder months.
Besides relying on heating and cooling from a ground source heat pump, the Blue Eyed Daisy also incorporates environmental responsibility in its interior design. The majority of the furniture and interior pieces are made from upcycled wood.
Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.
