Artists Mitch Cope and his wife Gina, began The Power House Project with the goal of creating affordable, secure and sustainable housing from the vacant, vandalized and foreclosed houses of Detroit’s North side.  Their inspirational story, featured on NPR yesterday, gives me hope that green community building will provide a pathway out of our current economic and housing crisis.  After renovating an old Polish deli for their own house, the couple purchased and began converting a dilapidated, foreclosed  house into a neighborhood gallery and visiting artists residence that will run entirely on wind and solar power.  Known as the Power House, the project has already attracted artists from all over the world to move to the neighborhood, and as the Copes hope, eventually help renew the struggling neighborhood.  Check out some of the manifesto for this super cool do-it-yourself experiment in sustainable living:

The Power house Project is first and foremost designed to stimulate communication and action within an otherwise challenging, albeit unique Detroit neighborhood by way of mining out the existing positive and productive aspects of the neighborhood. The Power House is designed to be a space where people feel comfortable to share ideas, knowledge and expertise about the fundamentals of neighborhood living, i.e., gardening, house work, new technologies, safety, and so on. The Power House is also designed as to be magnet for gathering whether they be neighborhood resources, energy, social change, story telling or simply a place to produce and view art and culture.

As you might guess, I’m particularly excited about the gardening aspect of the project.  The Project has received a whole lot of press attention lately, including 20/20 and the New York Times, and will hopefully inspire people across the country to develop sustainable and nurturing communities.  Much of the material they’ve used has been found for free around town or online, and they’re always looking for donations.

takepart by following their progress on the Power House Project blog and learn what you could do to green your own neighborhood.