What is the Slow Home Movement?

From www.theslowhome.com
"Slow Home is a critical and much needed alternative to the standardized world of cookie cutter houses and instant neighborhoods. Suburban Sprawl is like fast food, cheap and easy but also unsatisfying and boring."

You may be familiar with the "Slow Food" movement which seeks to get Americans eating local, traditionally cooked foods made with attention to nutrition and flavor rather than stopping in the nearest drive-through. This website is essentially saying that the same ideas apply to "suburban sprawl" and new homes projects that create a "community" overnight, without any substance or local flavor. I remember being very unnerved by my first visit to one of these planned communities, music played from speakers hidden inside fake rocks in the "downtown"! These are becoming increasingly popular, however, and I understand why, because they are so convenient. You get a lot of "house" for your money, in the same way you get a lot of calories for your money at McDonalds. I am seeing a shift away from these new McMansions, partly because rising gas costs are keeping people closer to Washington where the land was developed decades ago and there is no room to build a Pleasantville. The trend towards environmentally friendly building has already caught on, so I think we'll be hearing more about the "Slow Home" in the coming years.