Location

The plot

Located close to the city of Planes, by the lake, surrounded by olive groves, cherry trees, green hills and valleys. From the start of this project we have been looking at different plots for this village but this one is by far the most compatible with our values and the project's ecological initiative. Most people measure the distance to the sea as an attractive feature for housing, thats only because it attracts a lot of tourists, and after 2 years of living in Spain we understood that is the last place we want to be. However our plot is 1 hour away from the best beaches, 1 hour away from Alicante and 1 hour away from Valencia with their international airports. The city of Alcoi is 20 min away, larger city infrastructure with hospitals, university etc. This particular plot of land where we are building the village is the only urban certified plot in the area, that means we can truly be by ourselves and sustain our way of life, surrounded by forrest and olive farms.

We have now 290 plots to work with, ranging from 800 to 1500 square meters, the design of the village as a whole will decide where we will actually build houses and where we create parks and common areas. We always talk about a flow, the way people live in this community, the walk from home to the eco gardens, to the common areas, school, caffee, offices needs to be optimised in the design stage.

Our architect Jose Manuel Escobedo will make this an architectural wonder. We always said from the beginning of the project that we want to create the best living place in the world and that is how we got this respected, talented prize winning architect to take the project. He will design all the houses and the landscape of our village, having a very little print on nature, enhancing rather than taking away.

The houses

This is a topic where most of you have a lot of good ideas, based on the thousands of emails we received so far. We found out most people welcome the solar energy, low consumption houses, the size varies a lot because of the size of different families that want to live here. When it comes to ecological paint, organic insulation and other great ecological alternatives you need to understand that those solutions cost a lot more and the price of the house will obviously go up. We want to make it possible so that some of these solutions can be chosen on preorders as it is important for some of you. On the other hand I remind you that we have an ecological mindset for the community and the construction, but we can't stop people from using regular paint in their houses or drinking a bottle of Pepsi when they feel like. En ecological lifestyle can't be imposed, can't be totally independent from the the modern world, but it is up to us living in the eco village to take good choices for our bodies and minds, for our neighbours and for the nature around us.

Sustainability and work

We understood quite fast that this is a community project, not a housing project, thats why all the decisions we're making are with the community in mind. Reading your emails made me understand the importance of social interaction, we all have so much to offer. Somebody said the other day "we are today individuals controlled by the state instead of a person supported by our community". Most western countries do have great systems in place to help an individual, but there is where the problem lies, the individual. We want to live in a community where people support each other, where your kids can just go to school by themselves, where you can go shopping without closing your front door with 3 different locks and there is no need for iron bars on your windows like most spanish houses have. A lot of you express the need to work in the community, from yoga classes to swimming lessons, cooking, gardening, doctors and teachers, and a lot of online workers. Lets create as many jobs as we can, get this community to thrive, help each other. So in addition of sustainable energy and food supplies, lets aim to have a sustainable lifestyle.