For connoisseurs of the sounds and smells of nature, not last century’s machines and ill-health. Uncompromising on this: 100s others here if you compromise.
Clean-air, combustion-free rural community. Travel by eBike or public transport. Land cultivation by hand, eMachinery and “family” animals. No internal combustion engines or lifestyle that depends upon cars, vans, generators, farm machinery, flying visits, nor the smokey combustion of biomass. Not a “primitive” but a futuristic community. #Solarpunk with #realism.
Potential “villagers” are technical, scientific or creative, analytically minded with a core love and knowledge of nature or horticulture, looking for support from others working to transcend the habits of last century that society clings to.
Fluent Portuguese speakers especially encouraged. Self awareness, ability to express oneself, and give reciprocal quality attention is expected.
Currently based within an hour’s ride of the mountain valley town of Fundão. Looking for land co-purchasers, for better value, wild-fire security and potential. About to investigate Benfeita area.
Travel by eBike here is exhilarating: mountain views, relatively well maintained tarmacked roads and little traffic. Companionship and mutual support on exploration needed.
You might want to respond as a “remote supporter”, a keen but novice person to “learn and experience” this lifestyle, or an “old hand” with very similar priorities, to join on site. Fundão is accessible by rail.
I live on potential community land in a motor-home I purpose-built with unusually good insulation, underfloor heating, solar thermal panels and heat-reclaim. This means only combustion for cooking is needed to heat it. It is only driven when I need to move to a new base, which has been about once a year to date. Longer term solutions like earth-sheltered, heat and fire-resistant dwellings are imagined.
tranquil clean-air small-footprint techno futuristic natural-beauty solar-electric horticultural space
Same as regarding a visit, above.
Please initiate an email conversation, by responding in detail to the description posted here, and about how you see yourself as part of this community.
* You are welcome to write in Portuguese, Spanish, French or German, but the reply will probably be mostly in english.
* Please be realistic about your potential involvement, including mentioning other communities or futures you are investigating.
* I will likely respond with a SIMILAR amount to what you write. So if you write “Hi, please send me more information”, I will reply “What specifically would you like to know”…etc.
* A few zany words or other evidence of human-ness is always welcome.
* Please note that short-stay, long-distance flyers will be discouraged, as will those wishing to use an ICE MOTOR VEHICLE for transport while staying. On the other hand, all that is practicable will be done to meet the needs of and assist those travelling by low-carbon means.
* Visitors are expected to bring the absolute minimum of “disposable” items with them, and eat local unpackaged food of whatever diet suits them while visiting
* Keenness to take part in the business of the community is expected: it is not a campsite for those whose local interests lay mainly elsewhere
Still developing or unclear governance approach.
As in the profile above, you may come either as a “learner”, a “supporter” or a contributing “old hand”. You may be somewhere between these, but sufficient self-awareness to to see how one fits into a functionally fluid structure, rather than having to fit a rigid structure makes the flexible structure so much more comfortable for those used to, and expecting to have agency.
Members contribute a percentage of income to community funds.
Join fee: $10000
Regular fees: $50
Labor: Yes (30 hrs/week)
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
All the figures above are guidelines, based on local costs, and very simple living. Hopefully the community will develop business activities which can support members. Poverty should not discourage you from participation; disinclination to engage full-time in productive structured activity should.
Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace
A residential project: people live here as their primary home.
An institution, business, network, or project that isn’t a residence (e.g. a learning center, farm, or network with no one living there full-time).
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