EcoErf
Download the (dutch) EcoErf Brochure here.
Also view our (dutch) concept for a Mooi Vathorst Noord (Beautiful Vathorst North).
One Planet Foundation developed the concept EcoErf together with Bureau Mensenland. This concept includes the establishing of an ecologically sustainable erf where residents manage the surrounding landscape. It concerns a new concept of housing and managing the outside areas and where a number of households of all ages occupy the erf. They strive to be a practical example of the One Planet Living concept of WWF, where people live in a modern, attractive and affordable manner within an ecologically justified budget of 1,8ha /person. That is what WWF and scientists call ‘sustainable living’. The EcoErf concept shows that a good and comfortable life-style is possible with an 80% reduced emission of CO2.
EcoErf
Realisation
The project came about through collective private ownership. The future residents invest in the project; to participate in the EcoErf project occupants themselves have to provide the capital for their houses. They also pay a monthly lease for the use of the land. These costs are relatively low as occupants make a considerable contribution in kind to the development, improvement and maintenance of the land and infra structure as well as to the social community.
The EcoErf concept
The following principles and points of departure are formulated in the EcoErf concept:
1. A new housing concept in the country:
We intend erecting housing aimed mainly at homes for a number of households, the so-called ‘co-housing’. Work is subordinate and directed namely at managing the place and the land. Residing becomes the new financial carrier of the landscape. This becomes a new concept of self-sufficient, financially sustainable living.
2. An aesthetic landscape natural to its region:
The use of the land leads to a positive, conservational approach to nature, the landscape and its recreative accessibility. Inhabitants are concerned to manage it with care.
3. CO2-neutral and energy positive:
By utilising the already existing, multi-purposed technology the building and the place will generate nett energy. In building and structuring these we strive to utilise as far as possible materials that measures up to the Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) principles.
4. Footprint of 1,8 ha:
We know that a sustainable life-style need not be less comfortable. Apart from using technology cleverly and living in a sustainable building, the residents intend to consume with such awareness that it becomes possible to realise a true honest mondial Footprint of maximum 1,8 ha.
5. Interfunctional land use:
Occupants use and manage the land, optimally integrating the various functions of nature, production, landscape as well as meeting the demands that result from the residential function. For the last-mentioned one could well imagine that a section of land should be used for a heliophyte filter for water purification or a box for production/ source of heat. Land use further includes nature, landscaping and the cultivation of vegetables and fruit and even keeping a few animals as a hobby.
6. Independent of subsidies and self-sufficient:
Occupants use and manage the land as one integrated concept. Money for management is initially put aside or paid via a lease, but occupants themselves also put their shoulder to the wheel. The management of the ground is therefore independent of subsidies.
7. Designing:
Buildings and landscape comply with the highest demands of aesthetic quality, thanks to modern designing.
8. An example for others:
After completion this project will serve as an example for other areas. It would therefore be expedient to consider reserving space for public functions or a visitors’/infocentre.
Contact:
justin.pagden@oneplanet.org