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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 ----------------------------------------------------------------- PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design -----------------------------------------------------------------