Rob Hopkins’ regularly updated ‘Transition Culture’ blog today features a report back from his trip the the Hollies Sustainability Centre in West Cork, Ireland. Its a project he was involved in setting up from 1998 onwards before moving to Totnes to concentrate on Transition Towns, and its really interesting to see his account of how things have evolved and moved on. Its also a feast of Humble Designs, particularly intriguing is the cob greenhouse, an experimental combination of two low impact but effective technologies; “greenhouses are great growing spaces, offering protected spaces and harvesting sunlight, but they lose the heat they gather just as quickly.  Cob walls have great thermal mass and can store and re-radiate heat.  So, put them together!” Whether the idea will work is yet to be seen as the structure isn’t quite complete (needs a few more window panes putting in), but check out the full story here

I spent a while chatting to John Boshier at the Permaculture Association AGM yesterday about his ideas for setting up a sustainable low impact ecohamlet project and thought it would be appropriate share his vision here.

Find out more about Ecohamlets and how you can get involved with supporting them here

What is an eco-hamlet? A hamlet is a settlement that is too small to be defined as a village. An eco-hamlet may well have many of the characteristics of an eco-village, but be too small to fit the definition of one. It may also be too small to be defined as a co-housing scheme, but share many features of one. This web site is about a project to create an eco-hamlet.

Why create an eco-hamlet? For people who wish to live in a sustainable way, with like minded neighbours to share resources with, while having their own private space, it is difficult, if not impossible, to find suitable sites in the mainstream housing market. Land with residential planning permission is very expensive and mostly held by large house building companies, so a settlement on this scale is possibly the largest that can currently be created by ordinary people.

What would it look like? The Vision and Ideas pages go into a little more detail, but the proposed eco-hamlet would consist of a small group of houses, and possibly houses divided into flats. It would have surrounding land occupied by smallholders, making at least a partial living from the land, and where food, fuel and other resources for the settlement are grown. The homes would be occupied by people working on the land, running sustainable businesses based on the site, working locally within walking or cycling distance, and probably retired people who would be available as extra pairs of hands to help out wherever needed. Using the ethics and principles of Permaculture design, it would be a fair and sustainable community, where resources are used productively, nature and people are cared for, and people are able to live happy and fulfilling lives.

Who would live there? To buy and develop a suitable site would need a number of residents with money available from savings and the sale of their house. There would also be people with little or no money to invest, but with energy and skills to contribute. There would be a diverse mix of ages, skills and activities, as would be found in any community, but there would be a shared vision.

Where would it be located? At this stage it depends on the people who get involved, but would be somewhere in mainland Britain. There is currently a preference for South West England or West Wales, but this may change.

I may be interested, what do I do now? Read the rest of this web site (by following the links below), and get in touch if you would like to get involved. This project is at a very early stage and ideas will develop as more people get involved, so anyone joining at an early stage will have more influence in the final outcome.