It does sound interesting slimmouse. I have gotten interested in Sustainable Living because of Irridescent Cuttlefish's great links - used to be bored by it but some of those houses are great and reading The Clan of The Cave Bear series esp. The Valley of The Horses and some of the links on the great messageboards AuelFans and The Auel Board illustrate some survival techniques in creative terms.
http://www.simondale.net/house/intview.htm
Interview:
Organic Architecture and its influence on Human Being
A Portrait of a Natural Way of Living
Homelessness and social deprivation
100,000 thousand families are homeless or in 'temporary accommodation'. This is twice the number of twelve years ago, despite all the economic progress governments claim to have made. Millions are
living out a half-life in decaying inner cities, and millions more are trapped in estates on the edges of the towns and cities of Britain, many without hope of anything worthwhile to do; without land on which to grow food; without space for their families to grow up nearby; and without contact with nature or their natural heritage.
They live in rectangular boxes designed by another class for another generation, planned by public officials they have never met. The TV programmes that are watched for 5 hours a day on average (what else is there to do?), videos and films, all offer largely some form of escapism. This 'underclass' is so numerous that controlling it is now the government's greatest worry. Thousands are criminalised and packed into our antiquated prisons. Only Turkey, of the European states, exceeds Britain's rates of prison population, which has risen from 40,000 to over 74,000 in the last twelve years.
Most of the 'underclass', however, stay where they are, needing more and more billions of DSS and 'Law 'n' Order' budgets to be spent containing them in the deteriorating homes they already have. Why the big fuss about asylum seekers? Because the way of life of the poorest 20% of the population already here is so lousy that there is simply no more space within the system to allow more poor people in.
http://www.simondale.net/house/
# Fridge is cooled by air coming underground through foundations
# Skylight in roof lets in natural feeling light
# Solar panels for lighting, music and computing
# Water by gravity from nearby spring
# Compost toilet
# Roof water collects in pond for garden et
The Context
I should really be dealing with the slightly sticky area of planning permission and the place of this kind of low impact living project in relation to our contemporary society. To save myself many hours of brain and finger ache I'd like to offer you this fine article by our friend and inspiration Tony Wrench. He and his lady Jane live in this beautiful roundhouse which has been the subject of a planning debate which after seven years is still on going.
http://www.simondale.net/house/context.htm
Permaculture Land
It is my contention here that we could make some small adjustments to planning law which would have beneficial consequences in several problem areas, and would enable significant progress towards a sustainable society.
I am deeply concerned about the way our society is relating to the earth, and am continually baffled by the obstacles that prevent me simply doing what my grandfather did - build a wooden house in the countryside.
Planning has achieved some successes, particularly in the field of controlling the worst visual excesses of a growth-geared free market, but it is fighting a losing battle. For many reasons - historical, political, economic and ecological - it just isn't working, because the UK government has not yet realised that its policies are incompatible with the needs of the environment. We are breaking the oldest rule in the book - our way of life is not sustainable. Some of the symptoms are:
Unsustainable agriculture
We have a trade deficit on food with the rest of the world of £5 billion per year, and rising; this is in a country that prides itself on its agricultural productivity and practices. Our ancestors ate what they grew or what they could find and catch in nature around them. No longer. We now depend on other countries to grow much of our food for us. In a world where so many are starving this is a risky, not to say selfish, business. With the authorities asking them to be guardians of the countryside but stacking the advantages in favour of agri-business, small farmers are in a difficult position and are the most suicide-prone of all occupations. Meanwhile, pesticide residues mount in the soil and nitrates permeate our drinking water. The demand in organics cannot be met by our own system.
Overemphasis on 'jobs'
The economy is still geared to fear of unemployment. The holistic alternatives to a job-based economy have yet to be even countenanced by the establishment. (This myopia is not limited to Britain, of course. At present the main priority of planning in all the major economic powers in the world is to find solutions to unemployment.)
Planners pretend that in twenty years' time our society will still be in the same state as their elders insisted it was when they took their diplomas. They should be looking forward to a society in which people are engaged in real work of their own choice, and this only happens when people have access to land, if they need it. The threat to our whole way of life posed by dramatic climate changes and sea level rise has so far been totally ignored by planners.
You are looking at pictures of our family home in Wales. It was built by myself and my father in law with help from passers by and visiting friends. 4 months after starting we were moved in and cosy. I estimate 1000-1500 man hours and £3000 put in to this point. Not really so much in house buying terms (roughly £60/sq m excluding labour).
The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives us a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Being your own (have a go) architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings.I couldn't agree more.
I am completely up for setting up a community and believe it is a very good option. I don't like living among people trapped in the system. I don't want to be part of the system and I really think that we should cut our losses and stop participating in the system. I have been researching the subject and giving it a lot of thought. I think that spending our lives living in their communities is a dead loss. I feel like I am part of the system even tho i do not agree with it. I see that there would be a lot more strength in numbers and the opportunity to live free.
I see that by continuing to live a 'normal' life I am inadvertently financing the NWO and am not leading by example. I am not living by what I believe in.
As for such communities being a target for the NWO I think that we are much more vulnerable in isolation. Chck out this link. www.simondale.net/house/i think the best way to fight the elite... is educating people, how materialism is ruining and poisoning our planet... and making people unhappy... not happy.
show people, who's really benefiting from our massive consumption of luxuary products.
show people the truth about the U.S. wars, like the war on democracy does....and massively kindly asking the elite to please stop terrorizing us.
let's not piss the elite off, and let's help them realize there is another way.
and when doing the above,don't talk about the reptiles, or the satanic rituals at bohemian grove, or the fact that Bush etc. are actually pedophiles.
even it is true... because it can't be proven, it's only scares most people away.
