Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

World-renowned ecovillage designer Max O. Lindegger leads off this volume with a wellresearched
introduction to our favorite subject: Ecovillage Design. Max uses a wealth
of available data to make the claim that funda mental changes are coming our way,
whether we want them or not. According to the analysis presented here, the sustainable,
full-featured ecovillage is the obvious solution to any challenge that may arise: the
ecovillage is the context where all the sustainable practices and technologies can come
together, in one place. A key assertion in this presentation is that we all must learn to get
along with less; and this, according to Max’s estimation, will lead to greater quality of life.
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Introduction to Ecovillage Design
Introduction
Max Lindegger – Crystal Waters, Australia
There is, at this time, no generally agreed upon definition of an ecovillage.
For the purposes of this article, we will define an ecovillage as follows:
• Human scale
• Full-featured settlement
• In which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world
• In a way that is supportive of healthy human development, and
• Can be successfully continued into the indefinite future
Diane and Robert Gilman (1991)
Ted Trainer (University of New South Wales, Australia) says
Would it be an exaggeration to claim that the emergence of the ecovillage
movement is the most significant event in the 20 th Century? I don’t think so.
We have serious issues to deal with: climate change and its impact, potential
energy shortages, loss of biodiversity and arable land, depletion of fresh
water sources, just to mention a few. Our extremely resource-rich lifestyles
are taken for granted by most in the West. There is very little doubt that
within the lifetime of many of us we will have to make major changes –
or change will be forced upon us. The ecovillage movement represents a
recognition that change needs to come and that some of these changes will
be considered quite radical – what has been called elsewhere a ‘paradigm
shift’ (Kuhn, 1970).
As I have tried to illustrate previously, some communities, including my