Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

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78 Designing ecological Habitats ment of alternative builders and a cross-fertilizing environment of culturally creative people. 2 While this movement typically seems to attract ecologicallyconscious people that are searching for alternatives to our destructive modern practices, building with strawbales is also attracting the attention of people with no ‘green’ background at all, simply because of its surprising advantages: “Hey, is this what’s possible with ecological standards?” they might be thinking. “Let me have a home like that, too!” Last but not least, natural materials are an invitation to creativity and playful work. With a firm basis in professional design and sound construction techniques, there remains a lot of space for open-ended artistic expression: from playing with the motion of rounded corners or other shapes to moulding beautiful pieces of art spontaneously at the time of applying the earthen plasters on strawbale walls. Herein lies a strong healing aspect for any human being – and whoever has had the opportunity to live in a beautiful self-built house knows how deeply satisfying it can be. Reconnecting with NATuRE Choosing to build with strawbales and clay becomes a personal process of looking at the world more holistically, with a consciousness that allows one to step out of familiar mainstream paths with their associated separation from Nature. It is often a rational and emotional choice to live surrounded and protected by natural materials as a sensitive human being, a being with a physical and emotional body that says ‘yes’ to a shell that lives and breathes too. Healing our relation with the earth-dust (a shaman friend of mine would even say ‘stardust’) from which we are made will synergetically contribute to the healing of the planet as well as ourselves. Living in rooms made out of natural materials provides a major condition for becoming and staying healthier. Strawbale walls are never cold or hot. Earthen plasters are famous for absorbing odour and regulating humidity; they even have shown a high capacity to protect from electro-magnetic radiation. And touching the smooth surface of finished clay plaster can become quite an intimate sensory experience with Mother Earth... Conclusion Constructing with strawbales is a future-building, individually and collectively mind-shifting, and culturally creative practice. It contributes to protecting our natural habitats, fostering regionally resilient economies, and providing healthy and beautiful environments for human beings to live in. Compared to actual mainstream building methods, this is still a relatively unknown art form. But if we look at all the characteristics of this ‘ancientmodern’ technology and its flexibility to be combined with many other sustainable technologies – social, physical, as well as spiritual – I can see its promising potential as being one of the widespread construction standards of our near future, especially for human beings that are changing the world.
green builDing in termperate climates 79 Notes 1 University of Kassel (2002): ‘CO 2 -Äquivalente verschiedener Lebens-und Wirtschaftsweisen’ and Technical University of Berlin (2006): ‘Stroh im Kopf statt Stroh im Haus’ 2 For Europe see: www.strawbale-net.eu/; more internationally see: www.thelaststraw.org/ Martin Stengel is a graduate engineer with emphasis on alternative energies and sustainable housing. He has been living in community for 17 years and is one of the founders and planners of the ecovillage of Sieben Linden. He is skilled at group facilitation and community building; he leads singing in choirs; he is coordinating editor of the Eurotopia directory; and, he has been co-teaching and facilitating the Ecovillage Design Educations in Sieben Linden since 2007.
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Ecological Key Editors E Christophe
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First edition © 2011 Gaia Educatio
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iv 2 Local Food Healthy Soil Restor
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vi The Editors In the midst of a sp
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World-renowned ecovillage designer
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This Introduction section provides
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Albert Bates, founder of the Ecovil
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Suzanne Foote describes in moving e
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This lead article for Module 3 was
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John Vermeulen and Kevin Velasco, f
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MODuLE 4 Restoring Nature Contents
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Designing witH Deep respect: Deep e
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environmental restoration in aurovi
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environmental restoration in aurovi
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Introduction Sajini Pathiraja, from
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Damniyamgama eco-village : sustaina
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trees, water anD people : rebuilDin
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Impact, Recovery & Conservation of
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impact, recovery anD conservation o
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impact, recovery anD conservation o
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Incorporating Earth Energy into the
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incorporating eartH energy into tHe
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Body as Place: A Somatic Guide to R
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oDy as place : a somatic guiDe to r
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oDy as place : a somatic guiDe to r
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MODuLE 5 Integrated Ecological Desi
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tHe etHics anD principles of permac
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integral ecology: Design principles
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macro to micro: introDucing ecosoci
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agroecology anD ecovillages 259 Thi
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agroecology anD ecovillages 261 it
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World-renowned speaker and entrepre
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Design witH tHe flow 265 Imagine th
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Design witH tHe flow 267 Some of th
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a Design framework 269 characterist
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a Design framework 271 climatic fac
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During a recent study called ‘Con
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“ecology of consciousness” 275
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Gaia education Designing Ecological
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