Indigo Celebrates 50 Years of Village Homes with UC Davis Design Museum

If you haven’t gone to see, “Village Homes: A Radical Plan” at the UC Davis Design Museum, we recommend making the trip. Indigo Principal Jon Hammond, who designed several of the original passive solar homes in the neighborhood, attended the opening event to reunite with several old friends and colleagues who had a hand in the development. Hammond was also interviewed in a forthcoming documentary that was screened at the event.

Developed by Mike and Judy Corbett, Village Homes was made possible because of a whole community of visionary architects, investors and home-buyers. As a pioneer in the field of passive solar design and neighborhood planning, Jon Hammond and his then company Living Systems were key players. 

This exhibition explores how this walkable, bikeable, food and community-producing neighborhood shirked so many greenfield subdivision conventions to become a sought-after, yet seldom emulated place.

“Village Homes was founded at the confluence of social and ecological movements of the 1960s and 70s such as Earth Day. These philosophies were successfully harnessed by a small group of idealistic and dogged developers, city officials willing to challenge rules, and investors and homebuyers able to take some financial risks. The original stakeholders sought to build a neighborhood that decreased environmental impact and increased social harmony...This vision today seems bold and almost unbuildable, yet Village Homes is a sought-after neighborhood and looked to as a model for urban planning…The exhibition asks why Village Homes is essentially singular.”

– Excerpt from exhibition text for “Village Homes: A Radical Plan” curated by Tim McNeil at the UC Davis Design Museum

Indigo Principal Jon Hammond with Professor Tim McNeil

“Village Homes: A Radical Plan” runs from January 20, 2026 - April 26, 2026 at 124 Cruess Hall. The exhibition is free and open to the public. We encourage you to check it out!