Green building in ecovillages: Diana Leafe Christian shares the ups and downs of building simply

New Life Journal, April-May, 2002 by Diana Leafe Christian

Scholars like Gilman say there are no existent ecovillages, since none meet all the criteria yet. Some of the more well known ecovillage projects in this country are Ecovillage at Ithaca in New York state, Dancing Rabbit in northeastern Missouri, Sirius Community in western Massachusetts, Lost Valley Educational Center in Oregon, Los Angeles Ecovillage, and Earthaven Ecovillage near Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Hands-on workshops at Earthaven: Introduction to Natural Building: Materials, Methods, Systems, (May 23-25) cob, strawbale, earthen plasters, and timber framing; Creating Sacred Space with Feng Shui, (June 21-23); Building with Cob: An Introduction, (July 19-24). 828-669-393; culturesedge@earthaven.org; www.earthaven.org (see New Life Events in this issue for more events). Diana Leafe Christian is a member of Earthaven Ecovillage and editor of Communities magazine.