ECO-VILLAGE

What is an eco-village?

 

The term eco-village was first used in a book - published in 1991 by Robert and Diane Gilman -called 'Eco-Villages and Sustainable Communities'.

In short, it can be defined as a modern village where people live in harmony and cooperation with nature, experimenting with new technologies and new skills to create a more sustainable, peaceful and different way of life. For further information: R.I.V.E. (Italian network of ecological villages) and G.E.N. (global ecovillage network).

 

The LaCasaRotta eco-village

 

We have chosen to build the LaCasaRotta eco-village to experiment with a new approach to rurality, where the encounter between tradition and sharing of experiences generates innovation, culture, technology and promotion of the local economy. We believe in an active relationship with the surrounding area, to live more simply, consuming less, using technology consciously, without giving up the comfort and new. We want to live the luxury of nature, satisfying the basic needs and reaching a harmonious balance with the place to obtain the essential. We recognize how much culture, sociality and experimentation are primary needs and believe that doing things together allows us to do them better. Together we work on a project and its practical implementation:

The self-construction of our living space where everyone can decide autonomously to share resources, skills or objects with others.

We recognize the creative origin of the project in the expression of the individuality.

In order to allow diversity to continue to exist, we believe that

those who wish to join the project must proactively share the following information, the activities of the Ecovillage and interact positively with people that are part of it.

First of all, openness towards the community that welcomes us: we live in Cherasco and we are committed to daily improvement of the living conditions of our territory.

 

Asking to join will mean committing oneself to a period of getting to know each other, because only after a fair period of time each side will we be able to understand if it is the common desire to continue living together. Acceptance must be shared by all.

 

Living in the village means participating in a process of building mutual trust.

 

Cooperating allows us to achieve and maintain the right balance between individual expression and group needs.

Everyone then makes himself available to serve the needs of the group and the project according to the decisions taken collectively. Some people have a role and a special responsibility because they have developed a particular experience in a specific sector of the project: agriculture, construction, ... 

 

It is the task of the inhabitants to ensure that the eco-village is not used as a tool of speculation in any form by people or entities that pursue the logic of accumulation and profit.

We want to receive and transmit the experiences that through the choice of living an alternative-life to consumerism, based on simplicity and sobriety, aims to give man the opportunity to choose a life ecologically sustainable and free in solidarity with his fellow human beings.

We aim to demonstrate a possibility of choice for future generations and create a bridge for the transmission of knowledge between generations and different cultures.

 

At the moment six adults and four children participate in the "living project" and as an association we are open to new knowledge and to those who want to share with us their path of life actively, by being part of this dynamic group.

 

Everyone is involved in the practice of recovering the farmhouse during the phases of research, invention, design and labor. We build together slowly from the roots, using the method of consensus for all decisions, protecting those who decide to abandon the project, but also those who decide to carry it forward.

 

Currently we have worked a lot on the main building that is allowing us to accommodate about 3 families and on the farm house. Soon we would like to intervene on the ground floor of LaCasaRotta and on the barn and therefore we will have additional common areas.

 

In short, we are working to create a place where man lives in harmony and cooperation with nature, experimenting with new technologies and new skills to create a more sustainable, peaceful and different way of life.