Eco-Village and Intentional Community - some links and resources
Global Eco-Village Network is an international network of networks: GEN-Europe and Ecovillages network of the americas both have useful resources, GEN-Oceania isn't really active.
In Australia there is also the Australian National Intentional Communities Association, which has a very low volume mailing list
The Fellowship of Intentional Community, is the biggest network, with a directory of all sorts of community. Its got a US focus, but lists communities from anywhere.
Gaia Trust where the founders of GEN and used to have good resources, but the site doesn't look maintained at the moment.
Lebensgarten: Article from "In Context" on leadership (my friend Declan Kennedy lives here).
Findhorn is one of the oldest eco-villages / Intentional Communities, and is located in the (cold and damp) of scotland. I've spent quite a bit of time here, and its worth a visit to see how a village can evolve over time.
The following design principles come from Declan & Margrit's book Designing Ecological Settlements.
FIRST PRINCIPLE SOLUTIONS GROW FROM PLACE
Sustainability in traditional cultures
• Bringing sustainability home
• Valuing local knowledge
• Responding to complexity
• Designing for place
SECOND PRINCIPLE ACOUNTING INFORMS DESIGN
• Ecological Accounting
- gap between economy and ecology
- combustion versus photosynthesis
- negawatt = decreased energy demand
• Life-Cycle Analysis
- design for dis-assembly
- embodied energy
• Following the Flow
THIRD PRINCIPLE DESIGN WITH NATURE
• A partnership - a constructive love affair with Nature
• Waste equals Food - Nature transforms continually
• Industrial Ecology, loops by design
• Active Landscapes self-organisation
• Self-Design - Eco-topes - Bio-Diversity
FOURTH PRINCIPLE EVERYONE IS A DESIGNER
• Cultivating Design Intelligence
• Community Design
FIFTH PRINCIPLE MAKE NATURE VISIBLE
• Work with instead of against Nature
• Get your use of resources in balance with your creation of new resources
• Use organic materials and natural or bio-energy wherever possible
SIXTH PRINCIPLE LIVE ABUNDANCE
• Natural ecological systems do not live on the basis of “savings”
• From scarcity and greed to abundance and generosity
SEVENTH PRINCIPLE TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOURSELF AND FOR YOUR DEEDS
• do not push things on to anyone else
• be the part of Creation you were meant to be
• mutual creation of things and situations are our birthright
Posted by mitra at September 26, 2004 10:39 PM
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