Francois
You won't believe this, but some months ago my wife and I were talking
about the plight of the elderly in South Africa, and the high costs
involved with retirement homes / housing. My solution was a kibbutz-type
village with (very) affordable housing (we have several building techniques
in SA that are far cheaper than normal building costs), with
allotment-style plots of land (as the British have) that can be worked by
those men and women who have have the knowledge, as well as various
workspaces for craft industries = woodworking / furniture, jams / cakes etc
(in SA the shops called Tuisgebak are very popular = literally
"homebaked"), knitwear (I once encouraged a BTech student to base her
fashion project, that involved knitting, on the working potential of old
ladies who only needed the design input to be able to turn out "little
black numbers" in wool).
In other words, a working village (everyone can still contribute something)
that is based on the strengths of those who live and work there ... no
matter how slowly the work is done, with enough proceeds from their efforts
to sustain the village as a whole.
The links that can be made beforehand with the nearest university
(preferably with design depts) would be of enormous value, especially if
the several projects that make up the whole are written up much like any
funding proposal ... in the "old days" Australia had a programme of
creative industries that involved design departments / designers going out
to rural communities to ask them what they needed, what resources were
available, what human potential was available etc. The designer then acted
as a "thinking manager" to source help from wherever ... I remember one
case of a community that had "nothing" ... broken down buildings, lots of
eaucalyptus trees ... the end result was a rebuild of existing "ruins" to
establish a paper factory (using said eucalyptus bark & other bits) that at
first made A4 size paper for the crafts industry, but the community
themselves than made plans to manufacture much larger pieces, got the
university engineers to design much larger equipment (which I think they
then built themselves), and there you have sustainability ...
You may also look at some of the sustainability sites in South Africa:
http://www.sustainme.co.za/eco-living.html
See also the Agroecology academy at the University of Stellenbosch @
http://www.sustainabilityinstitute.net/programmes/food-systems-centre/agroecology-academy
... and, what is happening re permaculture in SA =
http://www.permaculturesouthafrica.co.za/ (see Oudeberg Permaculture Farm)
plus https://www.permaculturedesign.co.za/
plus
http://www.greenafricadirectory.org/listingtype/permaculture-organics-courses/
which has a link to the Badilisha Eco Village in Kenya
Badilisha Eco Village promotes permaculture farm design techniques and
ethics: earth care, people care and share of surplus. It is a model farm,
or epicenter, for both sustainable agriculture and holistic community
development. Badilisha means “change” in Swahili. Badilisha aims to bring
change to the lives of people on Rusinga Island, who face challenges such
as food insecurity, HIV/AIDS, lack of education, among other pressing
issues. It also seeks to inspire change in the general paradigms of local
and international individuals, towards a more holistic and responsible
worldview.
There is a free permaculture book download @
http://www.ukuvuna.co.za/free-permaculture-book-download.html, as well as
lots of resource material @ https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/
Good luck with this project
Regards
Johann
--
Dr. Johann van der Merwe
Independent Design Researcher
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