A group of families in a local community converge one evening at the home of a neighbor. As they dine and break bread together, they speak on the state of their neighborhood and the people who live in it. They think there are about 100 people, in roughly 20 families who are part of their community. They start to share the idea that they dont feel they have equal access to jobs and resources living near the city. They feel exhausted trying to keep up with debt, and feel that they are not living sustainable or natural lives. They feel tired, and no longer want to participate in the high tech, yet isolated culture of the industrial city. They want to return back to Nature. They decide that, if they pooled their skills and resources, they could buy some land not too far from the city. With the amount of acres and the cost, they could build a small village to feed and shelter the community, while still giving them access to be involved in the city life. One member suggests buying land in a county that allows code and permit for the building of Earthships, which are repurposed, zero net energy biohomes that grow their own food, power themselves and collect and harvest water off the grid. Within 2 years, the community had saved enough money to buy the 50 acres outside of the city. They also had raised funds and loans to buy the resources needed to build the Earthships to house the families, and sent 4 members of the community to the Earthship building academy in New Mexico. 3 years had passed, and the land was bought and code approved to build the first group of Earthships, as well as two stores, a library, community center, and clinic. All were off grid and powered by solar and wind devices, stored in batteries. Water was collected, filtered and harvested on site. Waste was designed to be reintegrated back in the environment and reused for compost of gardening. Food was grown and stored all on the land, powered by the wind and the sun. Within 5 years, the community was thriving off of the grid, and served as a model for people around the world. A small school was established that brought community members from the city and around the world into the eco village, showing what repurposing and communal sustainability can look like. They began to share their concepts with city officials, and policy was changed that allowed greater and freer access to community subsistence practices within the city. #GraffitiVillage
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 06:35:42 +0000
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