Ecodorp Boekel

Ecovillages
Ecovillages come in many variations, with different visions and missions, but all of them strive to be socially, economically, culturally and ecologically regenerative and sustainable. These are not necessarily independent villages, but rather communities based on certain norms and values, where people live together and work on locally managed, participative processes while searching for innovative ways for high quality living with little impact.
The ecovillage movement has been around since last century’s late ‘60’s and has seen more than 10.000 villages grow all over the planet. Some 4000 of those villages are in Europe, of which 10 are to be found in The Netherlands. Most ecovillages have a scope of 50 to 150 people, some are smaller, some are larger.
On the website of the GEN (Global Ecovillage Network) a lot of information on ecovillages is available, including a map marking the spread of the concept over the world. When I saw the GEN website I wondered how I could have known so little about this phenomenon. So many beautiful ideas, so many beautiful examples, yet so unknown, at least to me.

Ecovillages in The Netherlands
The Netherlands is -judging from the small amount of villages- surely not a front runner, perhaps this explains my unawareness.
My online search got me to learn about Ecodorp Boekel, Ecodorp Zuiderveld, CVEG Vereniging Ecodorpen Gelderland, Land van Aine, Natuurdorp Maashorst, Aya – Ecovillage & Nature Center and a Dutch initiative just over the German border called De Vlierhof.
All these initiatives have, for as far as I can see, emerged over the last 15 years. Thus a relatively recent development in comparison to countries abroad, where ecovillages have been around for decades.
We saw the same thing with the realization of housing cooperations, so it’s not a real surprising observation. Historically, The Netherlands has a strong social rent sector -which, by the way, has been marginalized for years now- but the main focus has always been on the housing market. Buying privately is the holy grail, the standard for success.
Alas, The Netherlands is not a country stimulating new, innovative, cooperative models. We are a country of creativity, architecture, design and innovation, but when it comes to the law and financing we are incredibly conservative. Let’s hope that will change soon, because I’m sure many people would like to live in a beautiful, affordable, healthy place such as Ecodorp Boekel.  

Ecodorp Boekel
Before our visit for the interview, I browsed through the Ecodorp Boekel website to get an idea of their organization, the amount of people living there and other things happening besides living. The website is extensive and clear and shows a sophisticated project. There is talk of social value, SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals), living integrally holistic, personal growth, self-sufficiency, responsibility, a climate-proof food garden, cultural principles, the CESAR heat battery and more special projects and methods. My curiosity was aroused and so I really looked forward to our visit, interested to see whether reality would meet the impressive online image.  

At our arrival in Boekel, we are welcomed by Diny, one of the residents. We follow her to her house, get a cup of tea and wait for Ad Vlems to appear. Ad is one of the founders of Ecodorp Boekel and he will, together with Diny, answer our questions. While we are fixing the camera’s on the tripods, Diny starts to talk enthusiastically about the construction of her home and the used materials.
Ad arrives after fifteen minutes and together we walk to the food garden where we will sit for the interview. Along the way, we pass a framework of one of the treehouses, which will be turned into a hotel room later. Diny tells us it’s far from finished and that she will most likely take on the responsibility for that project, although a collective decision about it hasn’t been made yet. When we stop at a shed, Ad says the wood hasn’t been painted or stained, but treated with linseed oil and mould. A special method that causes scratches in the wood to densify over time.

Food garden
The food garden is a quite big garden full of vegetables, fruits, nuts, two pigs, a couple of circular Christmas trees and a compost corner. The garden hasn’t been there for long and therefore doesn’t have its envisioned look yet. Trees and bushes namely need time to grow and so it will take a couple of years until the right balance between high, middle and low vegetation has been found. In the meantime, there’s already a lot of crops growing for own consumption and courses on pickling and fermenting are being given.
The purpose of this garden is to create a climate adaptive food yard. They have planted a variation of hundreds of trees, bushes and other crops, all reacting differently to different weather circumstances. There are, for example, trees and crops that do well in times of draught and heat, while other thrive in during wet months. By designing the garden in this way (polyculture) there will always be something to harvest, anticipating for unexpected changes in the weather.

Ecodorp Boekel is, by any means, better prepared against draught then many other places in The Netherlands, because it stores rainwater in three large underground tanks and processes it in a smart way after use, for example through a self-built ecological wastewater treatment system. An ingenious system that has water flowing through a septic tank to a reedbed filter, to then make it run back into the soil via an infiltration crate surrounded by gravel. That way, about 4000 liters per day are added to the ground water and that is desirable, especially in times of draught.

CESAR heat battery
Speaking of ingenious systems: Ecodorp Boekel is the first place where the CESAR heat battery is being tested in a residential neighbourhood. This invention from Brabant stores the energy of 600 solar panels as heat rather than power, in a large container of steel slag (waste product of steel recycling). Thanks to the 1,5 meters thick isolated walls, the summer heat is being stored, so that all the homes can be heated in the winter.
When heat is needed, air is blown through 1700 meters of stainless steel tubes running though the battery. This hot air then flows through a boiler of 6000 liter, heating up to 70°C. A few times a year, the boiler pumps warm water to three small boilers of 1500 liters. Those boilers spread the heat over the floors of the 12 well isolated houses, which are built in one circle. There is a total of three circles being provided with heat in this way.  
The use of this special battery means that Ecodorp Boekel can save the solar panel generated energy on its own and isn’t attached to the energy network. No gas or electricity from an external supplier, which lowers the costs a lot, of course.

Circels
The use of circles in the garden stands out. It’s in the CESAR battery but also the way the houses are built. My first association was with building 100% circular, but there seems to be more. The use of circles in the construction of houses stimulates, for example, the social cohesion and even has a good influence on the resident’s health, but I don’t know the bottom of that (yet). The circle can also be found in the organogram and organization of Ecodorp Boekel. In the middle of that structure is the village circle. It is similar to the general board meeting we know from associations. Thus, the place where all members come together to make big decisions in a democratic manner. Around the village circle are other circles such as: real estate, administration, pr, garden & green, social and financial. All work groups (circles) occupied with specific tasks within the system of self-management.  

Houses
Naturally, a lot of thought has been put into the houses. The used materials for isolation, foundation and the rest of the construction have been picked very carefully. Biobased building with sustainable, organic materials and methods. The houses are even climate positive in the way that there has barely been any use of CO2 during the construction and lots of CO2 has been stored in the houses through the use of mostly organic and rest materials. Not using concrete is a very important choice when we talk about CO2 emissions: the concrete industry is responsible for a large share of the global emissions. That makes building without concrete futureproof.  

In Ecodorp Boekel all the puzzle pieces seem to have fallen in the right place and so I can’t help but conclude that this project is an example of how we should build everywhere.

Impressive
Ecodorp Boekel hasn’t been there for a long time (and is not finished yet) but already it looks really impressive. Everything, every detail has been thought through, each decision has been weighed carefully in order to the follow the four principles I mentioned earlier, namely striving to become 1) socially, 2) economically, 3) culturally, and 4) ecologically sustainable. In Ecodorp Boekel all the puzzle pieces seem to have fallen in the right place and so I can’t help but conclude that this project is an example of how we should build everywhere.  
Apart from the construction and the ingenuity in materials, Ecodorp Boekel is also connected to VrijCoop. That means they are part of a larger whole, a cooperative movement supporting its members by exchanging knowledge and experience. Being part of Vrijcoop means that Ecodorp Boekel will never be for sale and that money flows back to the Vrijcoop solidarity fund to support other initiatives that want to build or live collectively.
I assume there are people who -just like me before I started this project- didn’t know much about ecovillages. That’s a shame and it should change soon because we need examples like this. To see with your own eyes that it can be done differently. Those are the stories we need for a transition towards a better, more just and healthy society for everybody.