by R. Buckminster Fuller to use science and technology to create artifacts for living and make them available for use by everyone.

A restaurant in the eco-motel prepares meals, to the extent possible, from food grown in an enclosed greenhouse. A kiosk next to the restaurant displays a scale model of a standard eco-housing development with 300 homes and 700 bedrooms designed for a nominal population of 1,000. Power is derived from wind, solar, and biomass sources and an enclosed greenhouse is provided similar to the one in the eco-motel, except bigger by a factor of ten and arranged in a vertical configuration.

Excess foods from greenhouses in either the eco-motel or eco-housing development are sold directly to walk in customers, or through local retail outlets.

The kiosk is maintained by a Local Chapter of the Phoenix Development Society whose members will be available at assigned times to explain the model of the eco-housing development, with enclosed greenhouse, and promote the construction of such a development in the local area.

Based on the design developed during prototype construction, The Phoenix Development Company will assemble kits for the volume production of a standard design of the eco-motel, the eco-housing development, the restaurant, the kiosk, and the two greenhouse models to support their replication to meet demand. Image One shows a possible design for the eco-motel except it would be only three stories high, would be formed in a circle, and the open interior volume would be covered by a geodesic dome. Image Two shows a possible design for an eco-housing development with the exterior terraced similar to Fuller’s Old Man River City and a central vertical greenhouse above the development similar to Image Four. Images One and Two were provided by Michael K. Walden; more information is available from him at mk underscore walden at yahoo dot com. Image Four is a vertical farm design of Chris Jacobs.

Professor George Chan, a researcher in sustainable food growth, has created an Integrated Farming & Waste Management System (IF&WMS), summarized in Image 3, which can be adapted for placement and operation as the greenhouse in the eco-motel. In the words of Professor Chan “We pay high prices for foods for humans and feeds for livestock, but only 15-20% are metabolized, so 80-85% are excreted as wastes” IF&WMS recycles these wastes, which would otherwise pollute and degrade the environment, to use them as resources again along with other resources such as sun, air, water, soil, fauna, flora, algae, bacteria, and other micro-organisms. This course of action will make farming activities such as livestock, aquaculture, agriculture, and horticulture sustainable without having to purchase inputs, especially fossil fuels, chemical fertilizers, artificial feeds, and other costly items.

Chris Marron has devoted 25 years to researching organic food growth and evolved a method he calls “Perpetual Harvest Greenhouse System,” or PHGS. The uniqueness of PHGS is to integrate the latest innovations in greenhouse design and operation (Greenhouse Technology, Hydroponics Technology, Permaculture Principles, Organic Principles, Sustainable Heating and Cooling System Technology, 100% Natural Composting Principles) with an emerging understanding of growing techniques to create production levels heretofore not possible. This system creates 365 ideal growing days per year by optimizing light, carbon dioxide enrichment, and soluble nutrients in conjunction with continuous planting and harvesting. PHGS also allows a greenhouse operator to create growing conditions unique to specific crops such that almost any crop can be harvested at any time of year, even in colder climates. Furthermore, this system is integrated with renewable energy systems including but not limited to solar, wind, methane bio-digester, and co-generation, thus improving energy efficiency.

Terry Kok, another researcher in this arena, has been experimenting for many years with CELSS, or Closed Ecological Life Support System, a method designed for use while living in space, which recycles everything and provides fresh air, clean water, and a continuous food supply. Mr. Kok has developed a system, adaptable for use in an earth based greenhouse, that consists of water flow loops (streams flow through bottom-laying perforated pipe into grow beds where various elements create plant organic food supply, fresh water, and oxygen rich air), air flow loops (CO2 enriched air exits a composter into the grow beds and is further enriched for delivery to plant leaves), animal production loops (a slow compost process is mated with worm growing to provide a food source for either fish or poultry and a valuable source of plant nutrients), and a greenhouse configuration (stack grow beds to save space, provide a trellis system for climbing plants, place lower growing plants in front facing the sun, medium height plants in the center, tall plants in the rear, grow floating plants in platforms on the top of aquaculture beds, and use auxiliary light sources of sulfur lighting and a selected spectrum of red/blue/green LED lighting).

Rather than only a ground based configuration for these agricultural developments as discussed above, stacking many levels on top of one another in a vertical farm concept has been proposed by Dr. Dickson Despommiers at http://www.verticalfarm.com/. Image 4 is a vertical farm designed by Chris Jacobs taken from that web site.

A few of the advantages of Vertical Farming (VF) listed on the web site of Dr. Despommiers include:

- Year-round crop production; 1 indoor acre is equivalent to 4-6 outdoor acres or more, depending upon the crop (e.g., strawberries: 1 indoor acre = 30 outdoor acres)
- No weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests
- All VF food is grown organically: no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers
- VF adds energy back to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible parts of plants and animals
- VF dramatically reduces fossil fuel use (no tractors, plows, shipping.)
- We cannot go to the moon, Mars, or beyond without first learning to farm indoors on earth.

The eco-motel and eco-housing developments will not only seek food self-sufficiency from sources such as the above but will strive for energy self-sufficiency through insulation techniques with power provided from regenerative sources such as solar, wind, and biomass. Image 5 shows The Phoenix Development Network, which will market eco-motel and eco-housing standard designs to local sub-contractors around the world. The Phoenix Development Company will apply composites technology to manufacture kits for eco-motel, restaurant, kiosk, greenhouse, and eco-housing developments and ship them to construction sites for assembly there by local labor. This turnkey construction in the volume production of standard designs will reduce costs so as to make these units affordable for most.

The overarching goal of the network is to volume produce eco-housing developments, designed for energy and food self-sufficiency, which would start with homes affordable to average wage earnings and drop until prices are in reach by those at poverty levels.

The planned method to introduce this concept is with a ship, outfitted with models of all elements within the network, embarking on a round-the-world promotional tour. In addition, the ship will be outfitted with terraced luxury staterooms (see Image six), a state-of-the art entertainment facility, a casino, and shopping outlets.

The ship will be named The AEGIS Phoenix™ with AEGIS an acronym for Amalgamated Entertainment, Gambling & International Shopping and signifying a goal to establish a network that will shield the poor and homeless from the effects of poverty.

The AEGIS Phoenix™, patterned after a reduced sized version of R. Buckminster Fuller's floating Triton City but designed for travel on the high seas, will provide entertainment, gambling, and shopping options at each port of call with profits shared with the host country so as to build eco-housing developments within that country for their poor and homeless.

After completion of its tour, the entertainment, gambling, and shopping provisions will be removed and the luxury staterooms transformed into high end condominiums with the ship docked at some Florida Keys/Caribbean location during the winter months and moved to the Northeast for summer placement. This is expected to transform into a high end business called The Phoenix Floating Homes™, which would replicate the design to meet demand.

The immediate task, however, is to build a prototype eco-motel, restaurant, kiosk, two greenhouses (one at ground level for 100 and one vertical for 1,000), and an eco-housing development. A separate business will be set up to develop a prototype for each of these six structures, to build the floating city designed for operation on the high seas, and to capitalize The Phoenix Development Company to volume produce each so as to meet demand. Investors will be appropriately rewarded from successful ventures.