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.