21.04.11 Feedback

Our last day in Findhorn – quite a melancholy feeling and I'm curious to how my perception of things has changed since being here. Our last council meeting was a sombre but yet heartwarming moment, it really does feel special to be the first to be on this course and to see our lecturers get so much out of all the hard work they put into the course. It was important for us all to give our feedback, but unfortunately I do feel sometimes that feedback can focus too heavily on the parts that didn't work and not enough on the parts that did. These can sometimes seem a little more elusive and it can be harder to acknowledge, but I do believe that in the following days, months and years I will continue to get something more out of what I have learned in the last 3 weeks, and the friendships I have made. Just knowing that I have a connection now with a place like Findhorn is something very special in itself. Something that I can take into my personal and professional life, whenever things do seem difficult, I can always remember the possibilities and the peace that are in abundance here.

20.04.11 Design Charette and Presentations

Another really busy day – getting up at 7am to meet and start work again. I'm really happy about how we are working together; Abdul is doing some really great hand drawn graphics; Meli is researching local materials and compiling images; Jane is coming up with the energy and water strategy while I have been working on some house and site images and the permaculture design. Our hard work has paid too, we managed to get finished an hour before the presentations began which gave us an opportunity to grab some fresh air and visit the beach once again. This really helped us stay calm beforehand and gain some perspective before delivering our work. It was really interesting to see the contrasts between the different groups work. They definitely progressed since the last time, and they took a more conceptial direction that ourselves. They did seem a little disorganised, but they had clearly given a lot of thought into their design concept. It would have been interesting to mix our groups up and see what we would have come up with if we had more time and combined their concepts with our more holistic approach to the site. I found their designs interesting, if a little unpractical and expensive to construct. But as Pano put well, in Findhorn you come up with the ideas first, then how to build them.

I felt our presentation went well – we covered most bases (although ran out of time almost) and we all participated in delivering the project. We all had each others backs though, interacting when we felt that someone had missed something out and dealing with any quesitons thrown at us. I think given the time allocated we did a pretty good job, and it did really feel like a team effort which was important. Having members of the community there really made the project feel a bit more real, and their feedback was very honest. I think everyone felt quite numb afterwards, but our course leaders did an excellent job of re-energising us afterwards. Giving us our marks too was a really great reward, it's good to know quickly that all our efforts have paid off and that in some way we have given the community some ideas to play with in exchange for all the ideas they have given us.

19.04.11 Design Charette Day 1.

Today was a really busy day, so much so that I barely found time to write. After being introduced to the brief of the West Whins project in the morning, we got stuck right in. I was glad that we were able to maintain the same groups for the project as before – we all kind of slipped into our roles quite easily. Some of our group had experience with formulating bids which was a big help – this was quite insightful for me as I am normally only involved in a project once the work has been awarded and the details of construction are being planned out. I felt at times that I wanted to get stuck into the actual design and concept of the buildings, but it was great to set ourselves a plan of action and to dapple a little in every other aspect of the master plan, such as energy, water, materials, landscaping and site analysis. From this I could really see how to treat a site holistically, and the amount of work that was involved. At midnight we called a halt to our work, but Abdul and myself began to discuss the rational that we should actually have a small part of a building plan laid out and some visualisations to go along with it. We worked away until past 3am coming up with a basic house layout, which we then applied this to the site – the end result looked a lot like something below. I'm curious how the other team are getting on – I hope they managed to overcome their problems from the previous session.

18.04.11 The Living Machine

I've been looking forward to see the living machine since arriving in Findhorn – a real physical symbol of working with nature to process sewage and waste. I was curious as to whether there would be a strong smell - apparently this is at its most strongest between anaerobic and aerobic – or with or without oxygen. Following this stage it converts any ammonia into nitrates collected by plant roots by pumping the system with oxygen (from my understanding anyway). It then goes through several processes until the processed water is then safe to flood into natural water flows or to be used as non-potable water. The construction costs in comparison to a standard sewage works is around 10% less, and the maintenance costs 30-40% less. It was really impressive to see the plant in progress – I can't believe that Scottish Water will no longer give permission to create another living machine due to it's threat to their monopoly. It was good to get some cold hard data from Michael regarding the renew ables – finding out how much electricity they produced and when they are actually practical to install. Giving us a task of exploring solutions to the problem of supplying the new development within Findhorn with energy – the grid is charging £47,000 to connect a new cable.

I found the afternoons talk about world economics very thought provoking. Jonathan is a very eloquent speaker and his arguments were quite compelling and quite depressing. It's difficult to argue with his ideas about an unavoidable economic crash and it's consequences. It wasn't all doom and gloom though – although an escape is highly unlikely I think our course will have an significant part to play in any resilience – investing in communities and our personal relationships will surely pay more dividends that any paper currency or precious metal.

16.04.11 Permaculture

There was still some simmering tension in today's class on Permaculture, but I think everyone has learned from yesterday and when some things started to grate members of the group everyone was a bit more open about mentioning it. Still not perfect, but a step in the right direction anyway. I found permaculture very interesting, especially when learning about the different zoning that you can do when allowing an area of land to develop. Permanent Agriculture or Permaculture is about building up the land and soil, rather than constantly ploughing and tilling, working with nature rather than against it. It was a surprise to hear that not all permaculture is organic, and that there are varying degrees of pragmatism throughout the permaculture ethos. It was definitely something I will delve deeper into when looking at site layouts, especially with zone and sector planning. We also covered a little about something called 'thinking contact' which was an attempt to get us to allow the basic idea of permaculture to flow into other aspects of our lives which I felt that while it was helpful, given the short time frame it perhaps would have been better to focus on design principles. But the interest is there now, so I will definitely read up on it.

15.04.11 Even more System Thinking.....

The process we went through in the morning involved us listing all the problems we associate with development and then later on clouding the statements we made into areas which we thought were similar or related in some way. From these areas we then formed questions. This is only one level of the system thinking but again has shown me a way to generate questions and attempt at least to view things more holistically, almost like a checklist to ensure that all processes and possibilities have been considered.

Then we had an explosion of anger within the team. Although this started regarding peoples time keeping regarding the class, I feel the underlying tension regarding the systems thinking class is really to blame for everyone losing their temper as well as a number of other factors. I think almost 3 solid days of presentation style classes with not enough practical work, and that we have almost 2 weeks in each others company – more than I would spend with my girlfriend or family. Once the barrier came down, people started to be quite vindictive within their accusations, and it was quite an emotional drain once talks had broken down and people went their separate ways. There seem to be a split in the form of the houses we are living in, and I did start to worry that things might stay this way which would have made the next week quite difficult, especially regarding the group presentations. Although I felt like sticking my head down and just getting on with my work, I knew this would be no solution. So I attempted to bridge the gap between the houses, sharing lunch and having an open discussion with the other house – attempting to find out where their grievances really lay, explain misunderstandings and sympathise where necessary. So I guess in way I've learnt something about conflict resolution here too. Tony, sensing our unhappiness with the course did a brave thing in twisting the last class into a reflective period where we could voice our opinions. It's good to know we will all learn something from this period, not just the students.

14.04.11 More System Thinking

The morning session was quite a struggle – not in terms of understanding the concept of systems thinking, but perhaps more of a frustration at the pace of the lessons. I feel at the moment that I already have an understanding about systems thinking, and our lecturers will certainly give us the language to communicate our thinking better. However, the only new thing I find myself with so far is some examples of systems archetypes, one of which I can use to illustrate some problems associated with my essay topic. Looking at the IFF World Model (see above) it started to make a bit more sense, although again I think that many people do look at these viewpoints, although perhaps they are unable to communicate them properly. By taking Findhorn as an example and working in small groups, I found that this help us to drag out the thinking behind the system which was definitely useful.

Unfortunately I thought the tension regarding this topic was building up – but thankfully a frank discussion in the group meant that the lessons changed their pace a little. I felt I struggled a little bit at first, but once we had separated into groups and worked through it started to make more sense. I'm still a little wary of it's application – mainly that it is so complex that unless someone has been heavily trained in systems thinking then it would be quite hard to communicate using the definitions and loops that they talk about. It is however a great tool for invoking discussion and for forming questions.

13.04.11 Work Departments & System Thinking

The tasks we performed today in the kitchen at Cluney House were pretty much the same as last week – more cleaning dishes and preparing dishes. The crew this time was different from last week, larger in fact, with only the head chef Jonathan who was also there last week. I do a lot of cooking at home, so it was good to get some tips about cooking more with vegetables and getting to try out some fresh rocket delivered from the garden. It was nice to meet some new faces, although I feel I perhaps would have gained more if our work departments were swapped giving us an insight into a different part of the community.

I have been thinking a lot today about the visit we had last night, and imagining the family on the croft going about their routine, and it has made me think a lot about how comfortable our lives, especially in the western world really is. I had an opportunity later in the day to discuss this with Graham, and we talked about how difficult it is to encourage people to part with so many comfortable aspects of their lives. Again, not that people have to live a lifestyle illustrated on the croft, but more about what our limits are – what are we really prepared to live without, which comforts are really truly necessary.

I've been attempting to fit in any reading for my essay into any free time I have, so my head was a little busy with thoughts when we started what will be a 2 and a half day lesson on System Thinking. To be honest, my first impression is that it is something that we have certainly been thinking about for the past week and a half, and in fact longer – something that was introduced to us formally in our Environmental Studies class with talks about earth systems and feedback loops, and even a presentation we were required to give on a specific element, mine being Tungsten – see below for an image of my life system diagram.

I also think that the fact that many of us have even signed up for this course and the diversity of nationalities and occupations mean that we are already predisposed to this way of thinking – we maybe just didn't have a word for it. My only concern is that we may be dedicating too much time to this topic in the next couple of days – I guess we'll see.

Our very long day ended with a short design charette/crit of proposals to alter and extend the existing Universal Hall. The teams were divided into two groups of 4, trying to get a fair share of experience and specialisms spread out. It felt good to have something concrete to be working on, taking on board some of the things we have beein mulling over the past few days. Our group worked well and I though we did a fairly good presentation of our ideas, although there was a quiet member in our group who we will need to try and bring in more for the design charette next week. It was a shame to see that the other group had not co-ordinated so well, something that they will need to work on. Their group highlighted that it's not necessarily about talents and skills but also balanced communication.

12.04.11 Essay Topics & The Croft

Today's opportunity to work on essay topics was welcome – I've been trying to keep my mind open to many possibilities here, whilst at the same time trying to read a little about subjects which interest me more. Out of all the topics covered so far co-housing has been the one that really stood out to me, a housing model that is already taking place across many countries, including the UK to a lesser degree. It attracts me for many reasons, and makes me ask many questions:

Why does this model appear more popular among other European countries other than the UK?

Could this model of housing every be picked up by housing developers or housing associations, and would this provide access to affordable housing?

If badly designed is there potential for co-housing to become a form of gated communities?

Are they truly 'diverse'?

Is there potential for urban retrofit project that involve co-housing?

Do the current planning and building regulations restrict co-housing in anyway?

We were given the afternoon to nail down our topics more firmly, although I felt this was a little restrictive – a few hours to do this I feel did not really produce a more developed outcome, and I feel sometimes that essays do grow and develop as you research and write them. However in this case, it definitely is important to not go too deep into some aspects, which bodes well should I decide to take this on as a thesis topic. Using a freeware mind mapping program called VUE, I put all these ideas and issues into node format and hoped that something clearer would appear. Here is a snapshot of my mind map:I decided to ditch the retrofit idea, and after researching a little more, it would appear that there is quite a lot of information on the use of co-housing for the elderly, as well as a possible solution to the current housing shortage the UK faces. The Netherlands has around 300 co-housing projects, and around 270 of them are for the elderly. As the baby boom generation grows old and returns (and is potentially the wealthiest generation also inhibit the earth) co-housing could provide a viable solution to care and housing needs. There is an issue there with diversity, one of the key components to housing, but this issue could perhaps be overcome by combining residential housing with accessible housing? After presenting my idea, it was quite clear that once again I needed to clip down my topic, although I felt there was definitely more of a plan forming in my head. I know have to write a brief introduction and structure for the weekend – something that I definitely think will be a worthwhile exercise. I do feel however a little short changed that this task was not given to all students, as I feel they may be missing out on this opportunity and it has caused a small rift in that people are feeling that their essay topic or presentation was not up to scratch – even though I found it very hard to differentiate between the quality of almost everyones presentations. The highest plus point for me was being able to actually finalise my essay question:

"Discuss how the principles of sustainable co-housing could be adapted to address the problems of an aging population and housing shortage within the UK."

Being shown around what is known on the community as 'The Croft' by Em and her family was certainly an eye-opener. She and her family have taken sustainable living to a whole new level. Whilst I doubt myself that I could live this lifestyle (or indeed question that anyone needs to), the audacity and resilience that they show is breathtaking. Their living quarters are modest at best, as are their facilities including compost toilet and cold baths with partial rainwater fill, but yet I think seeing this standard of living will make me question everything I take as home comfort a little bit more for a while. Being situated so close to the sea makes me fear a little for what happens when a storm hits or as sea levels gradually rise. Helping them collect their horse from the land was a challenge in itself – I nearly feel in a pond attempting to drag a pony away from the water, and we were all rewarded later on as one charged at me, forcing me to jump in the nearby horse manure store....

11.04.11 Dreaming New Mexico & Masterplanning

My impression of being 'Dreaming New Mexico' is that it is similar to the transition movement, although Illustrating the possibilities for change on a larger scale (state level in the US, or at a national or regional level within Europe) plans for energy and farming. It certainly is an interesting insight into the mechanisms that need to be altered or put in place – although timescales have not been mentioned much. I must admit I'm not too enthusiastic about the name 'Dreaming' and the mystical type map that they have produced to communicate the possibilities – I feel it could strengthen societies preconceptions regarding sustainability, that it's a green, hippy-dippy type idealism with lots of pretty pictures but no hard and fast solutions – which is definitely not what 'Dreaming' is about. I'm not at my best today I feel, I think mainly as yesterday gave me a taste again of what it's like to be in control of your life again, as opposed to almost 8 hours of class and discussion. Because of this I found the group projects a bit more of grind. However we were tasked with Energy and here's a bunch of principles which we came up with.

In the afternoon we were treated to some interesting case studies demonstrating sustainability practices in master planning. As an Architectural Technologist I always tend to get stuck in the detail of design rather than it's over-arcing principles of design so this was definitely enlightening to see how competitions and initial scheme designs are approached; viewing the overall area, existing building uses, community focal points and connecting new developments visually. I found our guess speaker experiences (Matt Bridgestock from 55° North) especially interesting, in particular the aspects of making co-housing and shared facilities a selling point. It has made me thing a little more about my co-housing essay topic in terms of why co-housing is not as big in the UK as Scandinavia and mainland Europe, and if the planning and building regulations here are in conflict with such developments. It was also interesting to see that the development he competed for in Denmark was actually developer led – something I would think impossible here in the UK. Perhaps it could be used as a model for social housing? I really like his description of co-housing as 'plug and play', something that could be used to shape it's image as a future looking idea rather than a reflection on the past.

Introducing the processes involved in Design Charettes was very interesting, and something that I would like to attend, and perhaps one day chair in the future – its also clear to see that lines in the sand must be drawn over some design decisions to achieve a positive outcome. Marks also dropped in some nuggets regarding building technologies (like composite compressed timber panels) and software including this solar tracking app which could definitely come in useful.

09.04.11 Spiral Dynamics

Returning to perhaps a more philosophical way of interpreting sustainability through peoples needs, desires and current life situation is something that I was actually quite surprised with. I was obviously familiar with Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, but learning about spiral dynamics, a theory originally introduced by Clare. W. Graves revealed to me an awareness that is necessary when diving into conversations about sustainability. Although the spiral dynamics systems has 8 levels in total, it is very important not to divide people into these categories but recognise that all of these levels exist within us, and by noticing when and where peoples motivation is coming from is definitely an effect tool in design.

That brief introduction has rounded off quite a busy week – I'm looking forward to taking some time the next couple of days to relax and enjoy the sunshine and the community itself, as well as dipping into some books from time to time.....

08.04.11 Co-Housing + Planning

Today's morning class was particularly inspiring – watching and listen to Graham delivery a talk that was clearly a integral part of his life for many years really came through. Having spent 8 years living and studying co-housing, here is someone who really knows his stuff. The basis of co-housing is an intentional community laid out as a cluster of buildings with shared facilities including washing, occasional dining and garden. I had previously held misgivings about co-housing mostly due to my own misconceptions, an image of people living in each others pockets and to some extent wallets and how this model of housing could be translated to the building environment I am more familiar. I was surprised to what level the residents can drop in or out of social activities at their own will, and the financial commitment to the actual day to day running is minimum. I also like the aspect of encouraging people to live a higher quality of life through having more time and interacting more rather than the empty building up of material wealth. That's not to say that is also not possible in this model, but the environment it creates is itself an advertisement for the palpable benefits co-housing can bring. Grahams extensive research and presentation has planted a seed in my head regarding a possible dissertation topic, which is really exciting.

In the afternoon we were treated to another wealth of knowledge, Bob Martin, who recently retired as the head of planning with Moray Council and who was responsible in part for approving permission for Findhorns wind park. Although I have had some experience with plannings in my professional life, it was good to drop the barrier that usually existing between architects and planners and have a frank discussion about the motivations behind decisions, and where the real power lies. Sharing a meal and drinks as a group later on also emphasised this – a real opportunity to hear stories and opinions.

07.04.11 Design Principles & Industrial Ecology

So far most of our lectures have been presentation based, so today it was quite refreshing to have a more of workshop type class. Each group was given different systems under which to summarise, their design principles, ours being Bio-mimcry. There was quite a lot of overlap, and I think at some point I will write all the principles down and attempt to 'cloud' them. Bio-mimicry was a whole different kettle of fish though – rather than have many design principles it more follows a thought process by which we can take systems or characteristics present in nature and recreate them (sustainably of course!) and integrate them with our lifestyles, materials or perhaps even thought systems. I’m quite tempted to visit the Bioneers Convention later in the year in Amsterdam – especially following the video presentation that we had. The speaker made the great point that nature has been R & D'ing for the last 3.8 Billions years!

Of all the pre-course reading I have done, industrial ecology was definitely on my radar of topics to look forward to. I really like the principle of how one man's waste is another man's raw material, and how you could apply this to industrial parks, or even regions as a whole. I do have some misgivings about the risk involved should one supplier of raw material go bust, and the potential for a domino effect for other companies reliant on that, but financial protections could be put in place and these risk are also prevalient in the current system. Daniel (our lecturer) is a great source of material, and it will probably take months for me to sift through all the recommendations of source material he made.

For the last part of the day we convened at one of the sanctuary buildings, and had a period of reflection on our time here so far, what we have learned and what relationships we have built up. As a Scotsman it can be difficult sometimes to engage in this way, but I did find the session really helpful and it was clear to see the benefits it gave to everyone, including the lecturers who have put such a lot of work in to make this programme happen. Seeing everyone open up what they previously had held back really brought our group together. I really have found the learning through the physical aspect of being here really helpful, it is a bit of shame to have to take this back and return to the books and essay assessment.

06.04.11 Work Departments and Transition Towns

Today has been a bit more of a story of familiarity – the first half of the day spent cleaning dishes and chopping vegetables in Cluney House as part of my work placement while here in the community, something that everyone must do. It was good to escape the confines of the village for a little while, and see another campus of the community. As I do most of the cooking at home I didn't really gain much skills-wise but it was rewarding to see people enjoy their lunch.

As a volunteer with Transition Towns in Edinburgh the afternoons lecture was also quite familiar. It actually reminded me that I had to forward a logo design I had done for the Community Bread Project I was working on to the committee that I'm currently working with.

Visiting the town of Forres community gardens set up by the wonderfully colourful (albeit one colour) Carin gave me a perspective on community gardens that I hadn't seen before. Set up with a grant of £138,000 from the Climate Challenge Fund, the circular gardens almost provide one person with enough food to be self sufficient for a year. But thats not really the main point of the community gardens – it's more about bringing the community together and reconnecting people with their food source, and perhaps even more importantly educating younger generations about the supply of their food. The difficult task, and perhaps something that needs to come in from a council planning level, would be persuading developers to set aside land within a new development for a community garden. However with property and land prices still at an inflated level, reducing density on a site to do this could be problematic.

Our course leader also arrived today to discuss the program so far – it brought up a few tensions within the group staying here, everyone with their own pressures, frustrations and desires of what they want to take from the course. But the open environment that the lecturers and ourselves to some extent have created here made it possible for everyone to voice their opinions freely and without any bad feeling.

05.04.11 Low/Zero Carbon Housing & Community Windfarm

One figure that has been repeated a couple of times is that 80% of the house stock in 2050 has already been built, therefore a large retrofit of the housing stock will be required for the UK to meet it's targets for carbon reduction. Most of the renewable technologies are still in their infancy, would it be impractical to wait until we have mastered these technologies before retrofitting and even building new homes? It that even an option? Are the carbon reduction targets actually in danger of forcing us down a path including technology which will be redundant in 20 years time. Also from my own experience how difficult it can be to introduce new technologies and products into a workplace that already has built up a relationship with manufacturers i.e insulation producers such as kingspan who provide a lot of support especially with calculating u-values and SAP calculations.

Greenhouse not making full use of the space heating potential (although it does grow bananas!)

Strawbale house with slightly over-engineered timber - proper workmanship required to ensure dampness doesn't penetrate the structure, ideal for prefabrication.

Barrel houses created with disused mash tonnes from distilleries - I'm sure I could still smell the whisky.

'Temporary' home in the spirit of the planning laws creating a very peaceful living space - I was curious about so many junctions causing thermal bridging problems though.

There were a few points in which I found the low/zero carbon homes unsettling - there seems to be a bit of overlap when it comes to electricity production (solar panels installed when the electricity is already coming from the windfarm) and also the scale of the buildings, particularly the new sanddune development. I felt a bit dishearted by the amount of steelwork used in the new buildings - something that comes hand in hand with large scale housing where huge spans are required. The owner also seemed to have his heart set on mechanical vent with heat recovery, even though the building is not quite up to passiv haus standard making it seem irrelivant. It seems to go against the grain of the rest of the eco-village and the original community. Although there is a lot to be said for the UK's health and safety overload, there seems to be a lack of good environmental practice when it comes to site maintenance - in particular the filling for the Poroton blocks, which has been left scattered around the site, floating in a couple of puddles of water.

Talking about renewable energy seems to have an added dimension following a talk yesterday evening by George Monbiot. Although his views were largely on energy generation on a macro scale, after visiting one of the wind turbines here it gives you more of idea of the scale of the installation and their impact as well as the sense of achievement that the community rightly has about them. Only main issue seems to be the maintainance, something that will hopefully be resolved over time as novice engineers become more experience, as well as multiply. Duncan, the engineer showing us round commented on how the engine starting sounds exactly like a tube leaving an underground stop.

To end the day I took my first shift in the KP (kitchen party), a chance to participate with the cleaning of the kitchen after one of the many lovely meals here. It was pretty tiring, especially after a long day but also left me with a small sense of worth that I was contributing, even if it was in a tiny way. I also met the couple living in the barrel house I viewed earlier - they seemed very happy, and apparently I'm my sense of smell is letting me down and there is no odour of whisky not so ever...

04,04.11 Global Ecovillage Network

Quite a long day – bombarded with lots of figures and scenarios about the worlds current and future state of affairs, all very depressing reading, and much that I am all aware, although it's important to be reminded. Some previous thoughts I've read about a silver bullet solution to our problems through technology could be turned on their head and could also be percieved as a threat – I'm slightly sceptical towards this as it's very difficult to predict what the future will hold in terms of technology – we only need to look at the images of the future from the 50's and 60's to see how misguided they can be.

We also talked about massive inequalities of wealth and consumption by countries – perhaps it would useful to show these inequalities in the countries themselves, even with towns or communities allowing or exposing behaviour, but not so to increase conflict or aggression.

I think I have always viewed ecovillages as independant communities, but in fact they are very interdependant on the wider surrounding area, country and certainly in the case of findhorn – international. They may have all been set up with initial shared values (and to some extent these values remain) but they also grow and develop as quickly and diversely as 'the outside world'. It could also be said it is too diverse to call it a movement. Several communities have a strong bond with indigienous or aboriginal pasts – whilst important I think that for existing communities to adapt we may have to look not as far back, and even reference our own living older generations, something that has already been stated by the transition groups across the world.

I also wonder sometimes if the label 'eco-village' is a help or a hinderance to sustainable development.

Reflecting on the ecological footprint of the community – so low that many residences find so hard to believe, a lot of discussion was had today about whether or not ecovillages are infact a 'ideal' model for development. I agree with the thoughts that places like findhorn are like research bases, a lot like educational facilities with their techniques and teachings permiating through to the towns and cities. On the breakdown of the ecological footprint, the main strictions to lowering even further are civil infrastructure, doctors, civil servants, although this has already been potential reducted with the low number of cars and by dealing with their own waste.

With the communities electricity supply provided by the wind farm – there still seems to be several pv panels, used in effect to help pay for the wind farm by selling back (around 20%) to the grid and grants have been made use of to install these. However with the lack of understanding about the end of life use of solar panels, and embedded energy in some manufacturers models their merits are more questionable in this situation.

As I'm from a more technical background, hearing about all the other sides to sustainability is really insightful. I've come across the introduction of community currencies before, and curious about their beneifits and pitfalls and what level of take-up is acheieved. Also by transfering notions of ownership to actual access of equipment and goods is a very persuasive argument and one that has already taken hold with the city car club schemes around many UK cities - it is also another form of social interaction. The level of shared financial commitment that the community has given to start up all these projects is really admirable, but this would probably require more fundamental government support nationwide to avoid low earners missing out. It's level of commitment may not be for everyone, but then again it doesn't have to be.

03.02.11 Team Building

I was lucky enough this morning to share a conversation over breakfast with Richard, a resident of over 30 years. He opened up the possibility to me of how perhaps the communities and the individual resident's aims and requirements may change over the years as the generations of the community age, the older residence perhaps requiring more stability than in their youth. Does the older residence hold more power within the community – apparently not. The younger residents create more initiatives whereas the older tend to have already worked on their own in their youth. Standards have improved here from the early days of the community, much like the rest of the world. Would it perhaps be more difficult today to make such a large lifestyle change and commit to the establishment of an eco-community especially with the today's materialistic standard of living?

The part of the course I think I have been dreading the most finally arrived – team building through dance. In the end the first team building exercise beforehand opened the group up more, mainly through the playfulness, laughter and throwing off of any hang ups. By the time the dancing actually came round we were all laughtered out, and it turned into a slightly more somber affair, even if we were out of breath. It was interesting to see how this community and others like it still use dance as a way of community bonding, much the same way as a traditional ceilidh still does in many parts of Scotland, a reminder than you must bring the community together and create an enjoyable place to live in rather than just building green buildings – this is the real glue.

I'm still slightly confused about the ownership of the Foundation and the Community – although this confusion seems to be accepted as something that is ever changing and developing. Tight environmental building regulations are enforced by the Findhorn council – even more stringent than building control. Might be interesting to actually read these and compare. There is an application process for joining the community or purchasing a property which allows a kind of self-filtering, with some prospective residences put off by the demands of the community – although they have never turned anyone away. I wonder if this is the same model that is used for business practices within the community. The rules on immigration within the UK are tightening, and a number of residents here are from other countries, some outside of Europe – how will this affect the community? There is also another impact on the horizon – the neighboring Kinloss airbase is to close, a huge provider of employment to the local area. Is the working community forming some kind of economic plan to be able to welcome larger numbers or help to ensure that the local economy stays strong throughout this time? It also raises another question that was brought up at the slide show today – the density of the eco-village is quite low, although not low for the local surroundings – how could this model of housing be brought into a site or location where a higher density is required?

Findhorn Ecovillage Placement – Reflective Journal

As part of the coursework for both of my modules (Community Design Practice & Ecovillage Practice) to be completed during my stay in Findhorn, I am required to complete a reflective journal as a means of communicating my thoughts and any questions arising from the days activities. I have decided to combine this coursework with the blog, hopefully giving an insight into the outcomes of my learning experience here. So here goes….

02.04.11 - Day One

Although today was mainly about settling in and getting a feel for the village, even a tour around the living quarters and facilities opened up a whole raft of questions. Being shown how the community has grown from its very humble beginnings to around 250 residents was very inspirational, and being here in general has given me a great opportunity to see some of the theory from the course so far in practice.

Amongst some of the early permanent residence buildings we were shown have recently been connected up to a new biomass boiler providing heat and hot water. The pipes were installed underneath meandering existing footpaths to avoid disrupting plantings with the installation of the biomass –is this also possible for other services such as electricity? There was also talk about future demolition and replacement of these buildings - is there scope for more retrofitting of these buildings rather then replacement – at what point does retrofitting become unviable when consulting costs or carbon/ecological footprints. I would also be interested in finding out if it would be more cost effective to build a larger biomass boiler that provides all the heating and hot water requirements for the community as a whole – how are economies of scale calculated.

I was also really impressed by the reciprocal roof within the barrel houses (see image), though agreed with comments made our guide about their architectural scale and detail being a little chunky – however it is a very strong visual feature underpinning the support mechanisms within the community. How else / what other architectural features could be symbolise community.

There is obviously a high level of cooperation and understanding here, however disagreements must arise between the spiritual community members and those who are more concerned with the ecology of the area, who are perhaps more pragmatic? How are these and other conflicts dealt with within the community? I would also be interested in learning if potential residents who purchase properties on site are vetted or are required to sign up to some sort of community pre-purchase agreement in terms of lifestyle choices and commitment to the community.