Constructing a town well from the very beginning is key to simplicity, safety, longevity and efficiency.
The area of the town should be flattened, with a slight rise to the center for some surface drainage. This will make walking, biking, or taking special purpose vehicles through the town easy.
Make buildings beautiful, sustainable, and built to last. Go to Italy, Spain, France, Ireland or Poland, and pay attention to the design of public buildings, not just the churches. You will find examples of finessed cornices, beautiful brick designs, and a sense of the ornate –simple, but not over the top. Buildings should be kept to six floors or less. The tallest structures in the town should be the steeples on the churches.
Buildings should be highly insulated to reduce the amount of heating and cooling necessary. In most buildings, hot water can be produced by gas fired condensing boilers on the mechanical floor(s). Radiant heaters will remove the chill of cold outside walls if needed. Through the wall heat pumps with roof top condensers will produce the cooling and heating in most of the buildings. This will reduce the amount of ducting within a building, and likely simplify maintenance. Highly efficient buildings will reduce environmental impact of energy resources.
Utilities distribution lines will be run along the main roads, but not in them, and alongside transportation routes. Water, sewer and gas lines can be co-located in sealed trenches below walking and riding paths at a depth below the frost line for the area. Electricity should be hung from the main support columns of the train system in and out of town, and then buried in the town streets. Storm drains as needed to reduce the amount of water on the walking and biking paths. Paths will be sloped to run water off the sides.
Churches and industrial buildings may use central HVAC units. Chilled water should be produced locally through direct expansion units for smaller loads, and water cooled systems for larger loads. Distribution air should be run in exposed insulated ducting for easy maintenance access.
In all the mechanical systems, redundancy, simplicity and preventative maintenance must be taken into account during the design. Systems should be standardized. Building direct digital control and monitoring systems should be used to discover problem areas and track preventative and ongoing maintenance. Groups of buildings should have a main control and dispatch space manned around the clock.
Technology today allows us to produce electricity mostly through sustainable methods, such as wind, solar and hydro. Gas and nuclear power should still be considered for gapping the need for base load power. Gas fired power plants that cogenerate electricity and steam or hot water should be considered. Steam or hot water distribution systems should be considered if thermal equipment is designed for larger than single buildings. Solar arrays on rooftops for small scale electricity generation or hot water heating should also be considered.
