The Self-Sustaining Village (Den Selvforsynende Landsby)
Since 2002 we have prepared establishing a village building on ecological and permacultural principles. We call our building project Den selvforsynende landsby, which is Danish for "THE SELF-SUSTAINING VILLAGE". At the moment 16 grown-ups and 9 children live and build their houses here on the beautiful southern part of Funen, a bigger island in the heart of Denmark.
The Village
In May 2004 we bought a farm with 15 hectares to build on. Our piece of land is neighbouring the small village of Hundstrup and is situated about 15 kilometers north west of the harbour town of Svendborg. In the evenings we all dine together in our community building – a charming old farmhouse from the 1780's with thatched roof. Each family is responsible for building it’s own house with or without the help from professionals. We have permission to build up to 26 houses on 3 hectares of the land. So far 18 of the lots have been prepared for and are ready to build on (electricity, phone cables, internet, plumbing, small roads and a willow cleaning system for our wastewater have been established). Now, at the beginning of 2006, 6 houses are under construction, including 5 strawbale houses, and one wooden house. In the year to come the building of the next new houses will commence.
Lifestyle and Philosophy – Permaculture and Ecology
All our houses are built according to permacultural values and contain installations such as ceramic stoves and passive solar design. Our hope is that our farmland will provide most of our organically grown food and the necessary firewood in the future. All residents of "Den selvforsynende landsby" are to contribute 8 hours of work per week, this includes farming, cooking, administrative tasks and other responsibilities
Interested in knowing more?
As we are still in the process of establishing the village we welcome new members to build a house here and be part of our community. You are welcome to contact us for further information: kontakt@selvforsyning.dk ore the web www.selvforsyning.dk
Volunteers If you are interested in learning more about permacultural building and lifestyle it is also possible to come to the village for a shorter period of time and work as a volunteer. As a volunteer, you work a minimum of 6 hours a day 5 days a week. In return we provide you with all meals. In most cases it will also be possible for us to offer free accomodation in our guestroom in the farmhouse. If you are interested in knowing more about being a volunteer, send us an e-mail. Our contact address is: kontakt@selvforsyning.dk
Den selvforsynende landsby Højgårdsvej, hundstrup Denmark
The old version
Ecological sustainable rural village
Various permacultur designs around the world to day demonstrates great ability to regenerate natural ressources in regions: such as mulch, groundwater, air, biodiversity and energy. Permaculture embraces the idea of sustanibility; and forces the perspective to go further.
The common goal in the association af landowners in Den Selvforsynende Landsby, is to practice self-sufficiency for communities in remote rural areas. The energycycles to encounter are househeating and basic foodproductions by uesing permeculture.
Furthermore the project contains the element of building 26 new sustainable houses with the use of local ressources and natural raw materials, such as clay, straw and wood.
Den Selvforsynende Landsby (DSL) is a partshare farm – on a 160000 m2 piece of farmland on Fyn, (Fünen) Denmark. This area contains 26 small indvidual buildinglots each of an area of 500-800m2. This urban area is connected with a country side village.
At the present state we hav 18 buildinglots, with road, shelterbelt, an old farm and a local willow-evaporation-plant. The building area also includes community space and will at the same time contribute to foodproduction. We have been on the land since 07/05-2004.
In the following years we will combine permaculture-housing and permaculture-farmproduction in thise area. The rest of the farmland will be used in plural gardening ways in close relation with farm animals.
It is the common goal to explore ways to reach a more sustanible way of living by reducing the ammont of grossery-transport, energy consumption and waist production.
We will explore to what degree selfsufficiency is possible in a small community. In addition we handle most waste within the community and treat it as as a ressource such as: waste water, organic waste, and local recycling.This gradiually grow complexity and biodeveristy with a prommise of incresing returns.
Den selvforsynende landsby Højgårdsvej, hundstrup Denmark