[vc_row content_placement=”middle”][vc_column width=”1/2″ offset=”vc_col-lg-offset-3 vc_col-lg-6 vc_col-md-offset-3 vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12″][vc_column_text]

Celebration brings the community together creating a shared experience, a time out of the ordinary. In the modern world too many of life’s celebrations have been eaten up by consumerism and other forces for their own ends. In order to create pure celebrations again I believe we have to create new rituals. We have to invent new ways of joining together in ceremony to recognize the important moments in life, to observe the cycle of existence. In this spirit we created the Mandala of Gratitude celebration. A chance for Evgenia & I to say thank you for our first year of marriage, a chance to say thank you for our friends for supporting us through this time and the chance to create a moment where our community can gather and reflect on what each of us is grateful for. Gratitude joins the cores of most religions and the latest research on human happiness clearly points towards it being at the core of a happy life. Taking inspiration from history and all we have seen in our lives we created a modern but timeless ceremony, welcoming to all irrespective of religious affiliation or spiritual belief.

All participants brought offerings to the mandala, the mandala remixed everyone’s contribution and everyone took back home a bottle of mandala spices and a bottle of mandala herbs.

The experience was enjoyable and even moving showing that the need for ceremony, for participating in rituals which take us out of the ordinary is a fundamental need in all of us.
_- Victor_

togetherness… the creation of beauty with what nature offers us… the importance of everyone’s contribution… important as a simple moment of communion, reinforcing a profound sense of belonging.
_- Roberto and Judith_

Making a mandala together is a sacred communion. Mandala serves as a microcosm of the ideal community life, creating beauty and harmony through sharing and exchange. Virtuous value system is most important to nourish in the community space. The forces of creating and destroying in mandala making, re-establishes one’s important life values, accepting the transience and giving gratitude to what was and what is, and learning to live in the present with peace and harmony.
_- Kira Zhi_

It is a beautiful experience to plan and create something that did not exist before, see it grow and then dissolve. This experience could only happen out of many voices, hands and hearts coming together and contributing equally to the physical construction of the Mandala but also offering their wishes and gratitudes at the ceremony. We believe that such mandalas have been used since times immemorial during celebrations in traditional communities and they are still preserved in many traditions of the World. They can have many forms and their meanings can vary but we have decided to create it living and edible, with everyone contributing and everyone taking a part. We will hold a Mandala ceremony every year, with new variations, to celebrate community life.
_- Evgenia_

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row content_placement=”middle”][vc_column width=”1/2″ offset=”vc_col-lg-offset-3 vc_col-lg-6 vc_col-md-offset-3 vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12″][vc_column_text]

This weekend we spend three days in the area of Lousa, just east of Coimbra. On the first day we started with an extensive discussion with the real-estate agent and an architect specialising in natural building. The key learning points where:

• There are two basic types of land classification in Portugal in the countryside – agricultural and ecological reserve, it is almost impossible to get building permission on land zoned as ecological reserve, on agricultural land it is also quite hard thus buying land with lots of ruins is ideal – they already have the permissions to build
• In order to build legally need an engineer to sign off on the design, this is difficult for a natural-built house but there are some engineers in Portugal who can sign-off on a rammed-earth house, perhaps some who understand Cob.

Cerdeira village

As an example of the kind of village rebuilding which is possible we started by touring Cerdeira village.

Cerdeira is a beautiful village hanging on the side of a mountain at the end of a steep valley with a spectacular view. The restoration of Cerdeira was started by a German woman and now there are a number of people living there. They do cultural events, exhibit crafts objects, have workshops and a cafe. They are also supported by Municipality, which resurfaced the dirt road with asphalt and supports their cultural activities.

The houses have been restored as workshops, art galleries and housing for rent for tourists and art retreats.

There is a lot of activity but the restoration work looks to be done largely using modern materials (concrete & etc.)

Pedra da Se

Pedra da Se was shown to us as an example of the kinds of properties which exist, but not as something which we would likely be interested in. It consists of 12 houses constructed as tourist cottages, each with two or more rooms and modern amenities such as bathrooms, cable TV, etc.

The site is located on a small hill overlooking a big river in the distance (~1km away?). The property has lots of trees and shade, but the land looks quite poor and has never been calculated (how ever did they get building permission on such a natural land?) It is a beautiful land but the layout feels dead, the structures do not work together.

We don’t know the price of this property but the estate agent estimates as around €1 million.

Abandoned houses #1

This site is 3-4 hectares of land with about 10 of ruins of mid-20th century buildings surrounded by eucalyptus forest with a dirt road going through the site and above it. There is limited flat space for community buildings. The site includes a cement catchment for rainwater.

The site is on top of a small hill with a good view but feels very exposed, does not feel cosy. The surrounding forest is mostly eucalyptus and the surrounding area has a huge amount of eucalyptus.

The site does not feel like it has character or personality, and there is no running water in the area.

Real estate agent estimates price at €300-400,000.

Two neighbouring abandoned mountain villages

The third site we saw is on the mountain overlooking Lousa, a quite beautiful site with two small abandoned villages. Even though it is at the side of the mountain it is low enough on the mountain and the slope is gentle enough that it does not have the crazy eagle’s next feeling of Cerdeira of being exposed and hanging onto the side of a cliff.

The land includes a small church and a one-room school house. There is not much horizontal space, but given that we are not planning to do major agriculture there is probably enough. There are probably about 20 ruins in the upper village and perhaps 10 in the lower with some others spread around the land so building permissions should not be an issue, however the traditional houses are quite small so to build a house of modern comfort will likely require joining two adjacent properties. Somewhere below the village on the land there is stream but we didn’t go down and see it, it’s not large in any case.

Price is unknown but the real-estate agent estimates as around €1 million.

 

Quinta de Belide

Quinta de Belide is the land we originally found online, as is often the case the reality was very different from the online images and description. The land is in a very remote valley with access only by small footpath from a dirt road. It is a very steep valley with very little flat areas for any community buildings, etc. There are only 3 ruins of houses the rest being agricultural buildings and no surrounding space to build.

A great place for a monastic retreat house perhaps, but definitely not modern living or a community the size of EarthSkyLab.

Conclusions

We love Portugal, however there is a very wide variety of landscapes and environments even within a 30km radius. Sadly many areas have been planted with mono-culture of eucalyptus trees. Such monoculture forests besides being aesthetically monotonous and unattractive, environmentally destructive are a great source of fires and thus dangerous to live around.

It is clear that we need more time to do the search around the regions of interest. Of course to properly understand a region we need time to live on the land.

We look forward to coming back to Portugal and continuing our explorations, join us this winter!

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row content_placement=”middle”][vc_column width=”1/2″ offset=”vc_col-lg-offset-3 vc_col-lg-6 vc_col-md-offset-3 vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12″][vc_column_text]

Architecture, Permaculture, Art, Beauty, The Garden & Village – Design Circle

‘At the beginning there was silence inside. From this dwelling of quiet center with a breath of intention radiating in all directions all the necessary qualities manifested and came into existence through elements and their interactions with each other. Along Axis Mundi Sky and Earth may exchange the flow of consciousness, enriching nature of one another, bringing above into below, raising below into above – so creating a sacred space. A blueprint of human system encoded in space, a blueprint of cosmos structure re-lived in space. Through conscious harmonizing principle of light into matter and matter into light let it manifest! Let there be a place on Earth where Sky can dwell in the time that is now. Where all the elements and the creatures of all dimensions collaborate and prosper, to attain full realization, where children are welcome as love messengers, where ancestors are present as living wisdom. Time is Now!’

Areas of Interest: Design for community, Permaculture, Architecture, Village as work of art, Natural building, Sacred Architecture, Pattern Language

Overview

EarthSkyLab Axis Mundi is a circle (working group) gathered to envision a design for EarthSkyLab. A design for a human-scale village for the 21st century including the homes workshops and shared spaces, the community garden and food forest as well as all the required physical infrastructure.

Invitation to participate

We invite architects, designers, permaculture experts, artists, craftsmen, entrepreneurs to participate in EarthSkyLab Axis Mundi.

Focus Questions

We see the following questions as important to this conversation: * How do we create a pattern language for EarthSkyLab? * How to create a village which fosters community interaction? * How to create a village which supports our values and goals? * What shared spaces does the EarthSkyLab community need? * How to design a village which is a regenerative ecosystem? * How to create a garden which the community can work on together? * How to combine community, architecture, art, beauty and permaculture? * How can we effectively combine permaculture and architecture approaches? * How can we create sacred space? * How to create an effective balance of off-grid and grid infrastructure? * How do we plan building process so that we can gradually develop building infrastructure and have spaces for specific activities.

Goals

• Create an EarthSkyLab pattern language.
• Plan out what shared spaces the community needs and create a timeline for what order spaces should be built in.
• Plan the search for the land.
• Create a conceptual design for the village, the land and infrastructure. Whilst we recognise that without a concrete location creating a design is artificial but we feel that having inspirational images will greatly help the search for members so it is important for EarthSkyLab.

How? – the process

Introductory meeting * Clarify everyone’s time availability & interests * Review focus questions * Decide process and timeline * Refine & Finalise goals * Create timeline (meeting minutes and photos possibly video, to be published on EarthSkyLab website blog)

Who?

• Tommazo Franzolini – Architect
• Nacho Martin – Architect
• Manu Collado – Architect
• Michael Obrizkiv – Designer
• Pedro Serpa – Permaculture
• Evgenia Emets – Artist/Founder
• Victor Vorski – Imagineer/ Founder

Why participate?

• Create a pattern language for community living in nature in the 21st century and beyond.
• Explore the intersection of permaculture and architecture.
• Become part of the EarthSkyLab extended community
  • Work with us to find the land and implement the project
  • Come stay at EarthSkyLab

EarthSkyLab : Buildings & Spaces

• Homes – We need to create an EarthSkyLab pattern language which results in a beautiful coherent village integrated into the landscape and natural ecosystem whilst allowing each member to design their home to reflect their personalities and dreams.
• Community gathering space – the space where the community gathers for discussion, ceremonies and celebrations, a space with wonderful acoustics and beautiful light.
• Studios & Workshops
  • Co-working space
  • Woodworking workshop
  • Ceramics studio
  • Printmaking
  • Studio for filming/photography/painting etc
• Infant & child space (nursery/kindergarten) – a shared space for the youngest members of the community supporting community-shared childcare responsibilities.
• Youth spaces – space for the young to learn, do projects and enjoy life.
• Garden – the EarthSkyLab garden is a focal point of the community, bringing members together and deepening our connection to nature.
• Food Forest & surrounding wilderness – Much of EarthSkyLab land is going to be devoted to a food and wild forest. We will use responsible permaculture-based forestry practices.
• Streams & Ponds – managing water resources effectively is key to creating a regenerative ecosystem.
• Retreat – space for being on one’s own, spending time in contemplation, be it an hour, or a week.
• Community Kitchen – Dining – organizing cooking and dining so that it is a great experience for everyone, fun and enjoyable. A flexible space which can be expanded with temporary roofs or tents to accommodate larger number of guests as needed.
• Electricity & Water infrastructure … Other spaces as discovered through the planning process.

Moodboard Axis Mundi

EarthSkyLab AxisMundi pinterest

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]