"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
Lynedoch Ecovillage
When I had discovered in my Imagine1 blog that my dream for 2020 was to be the founder and project manager of an ecovillage. I decided to investigate a little bit closer to home. I live in Cape Town, South Africa, when i was doing research on ecovillages in South africa I found the Lynedoch EcoVillage which is virtually on my front doorstep. The Lynedoch EcoVillage is situated 30 minutes just outside of Cape Town. The funny thing is I drive past the amazing village everyday on my way to spear where i volunteer at eagle encounters.
Set just outside of Cape Town, the Sustainability Institute has become synonymous with the Lynedoch EcoVillage, a hamlet promoting sustainable lifestyles through efficient energy usage, the utilization of natural resources and knowledge empowerment. The Lynedoch EcoVillage stands as a shining example of the first ecologically designed socially mixed community in South Africa. A Montessori-based preprimary school accommodates 35 children from nearby farms while the primary school has 475 children. The housing scheme caters for 42 sociologically designed houses foremployees and community members, of which 14 are subsidised by the government.
In addition to the low energy benefits of using unfired natural building materials sourced in close proximity to the site, houses will use solar energy for water heating and will acquire an increasing proportion of their electrical energy from renewable sources (wind and solar).The ecovillage will treat all sewerage onsite using shared septic tanks, a biolytic filter and a vertically integrated artificial wetland system. Water from the wetland will be recycled back into the homes of the village for flushing and irrigation. Further measures such as water saving equipment in all houses and rainwater harvesting will also be employed to increase water efficiency.
A Summary of the Lynedoch EcoVillage current initiatives:
- A home base at the Lynedoch EcoVillage Development which demonstrates child-centred sustainable living in practice
- Mphil in Sustainable Development Planning and Management (130 participants in 2006)
- Phd (up to 10 candidates)
- Early Childhood Development (50 participants in 2006)
- Job creation for youth through Sustainable Construction training (40 participants)
- Community Development Management and Practice focusing on capacity building and career pathing in the HIV/Aids sector and then impacting on civil society as a wh***
- Further projects (applied research) on strategic design of sustainable neighbourhoods at Phillipi Agri-Business Place, Oude Molen and other locations
- Ongoing research such as Government's Economic Policy, Sustainable Cities, the Non-Profit Sector, complexity theory, leadership development
This is an amazing project and is self-relient on the wind and sun. I love the idea of doing and eco friendly school and personally think this should be implicated globally
I am hoping to drive out there tomorrow and get some hands on information and pictures. I will give you the feed back on how it go's tomorrow.
Here is a video showing how they made one of the eco-houses.
This is my follow up to this amazing journey to the ecovillage.
Views: 611
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Comment by Jake Baird on March 5, 2010 at 5:17pm
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That was really neat how when you researched it you found out it was right under your nose the wh*** time. It comes to show how people overlook things everyday until someone raises awareness about it. I awared you +1 Knowledge Share.
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Comment by Nick Heyming on March 5, 2010 at 5:27pm
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Those are the best kinds of surprises.
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Comment by Bongumusa on March 5, 2010 at 7:39pm
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Keep it up. You did are getting there when it comes to research. Your research is great!
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Comment by Jenn on March 8, 2010 at 8:19am
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This is really awesome, Reid! I'm curious, what does "sociologically designed house" mean? :)
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Comment by Thinkwell Ndhlovu on March 8, 2010 at 9:36am
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IT's pretty cool,Just pursue it further its interesting
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Comment by Leigh Hermon on March 8, 2010 at 9:42am
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This is such an inspiring initiative!
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Comment by Danijela Scepanovic on March 8, 2010 at 10:07am
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Thanks for sharing this information.... Maybe the experience from my ancients would help for new ideas. I have a 100 years old house in a village, 100 km from the place I live. The house is mainly made from mud and straws. The feeling to live inside is great and the fact that the house is still there shows that is possible to last for a long time. The floor of the entrance room (the biggest room in the house) is deliberately made out of clay or soil (to prevent dusting it is lightly watered each evening). It has stone blocks in the center which served for cooking over the fire (e.g. I could imagine cooking inside when is raining and you wouldn’t damage the floor) and for storing food for people and cattle.... The sealing is much higher than in eco houses. I don’t have photos now but if I go there during summer I might share one.
I think that your dream will come to reality much sooner then you thought.
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It is great. I enjoy your briefing.
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Comment by Emil Dimitrov on March 8, 2010 at 12:44pm
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+1 Knowledge Share!
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Comment by Hannah Kohn on March 8, 2010 at 2:50pm
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Great job!
Your research is well organized and the pictures help bring everything together.
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