I am a tramp electrician (one who travels for work, lives in a camper or vehicle and works cross 3k miles across the USA) I want to be a part of this, I can bring my power gen knowledge along and my machining hobby can be a good thing as well to keep things self sustainable
Hi Tek413 please see facebook.com/oneheaventown and we can work together on this vision. I have also contacted Project Kamp as well. Thank you for giving these idea it's due consideration.
@Caleb Solomon how do you feel knowingly leaving spam on a random 🤔 comment 🤔.? Do you just want to link it to Google or are you hoping your count of comments will get you paid from screen shots? Why lie anyway?
I have been _endlessly_ researching exactly this kind of idea, mostly in terms of how to create the housing side of things in a way that has the homes function: they're more than just a box. So, passiv haus construction, renewable heat/ cooling, hot water, and recycling of waste and waste water are all things I have knowledge. Same goes for permaculture farming, we could work together on a couple of food forests, and we would have everything we could ever need. I'm biased, but I vote ontario, Canada. You can get massive amount of very farmable land for quite cheap in the grand scheme of things, and the social services are great.
I've been exploring Portugal for my personal project kamp. It ticks a lot of boxes, like being financially accessible, in the EU, having a good climate and being flexible regarding alternative building methods. There are already many established communities there. Good luck and congratulations on embarking on this exciting and important journey!
Hats off for your idea! Long time ago I bought about two acres beside river and am about to build passive house.I'm not a community supporter, however self sustainability was my life dream.Btw there are still two plots for sale besides mine about the same size connected to el.grid 12k euros for each. Here, in Latvia we have fertile soils,forests and quite unpolluted environment,climate and landscape is very much the same as in Holland,welcome!
I saw you talk on Design Indaba, and if its worth anything, your super inspiring! Im a Graphic Designer and see so much potential in what your doing. I'm really looking forward to see you guys develop this plan, and respect your willingness to share your successes and failures with others. You have made a choice that i believe will change the lives of so many people, and i can even envision a new generation of people growing up within this community. A generation that can change the world, and it starts with you man! Me and a friend have spoken about a community of creatives that work together in close proximity to learn from each other. From blacksmiths so poets, from graphic designers to carpenters, and hopefully so so much more. Obviously the intention is to live within a community, and to be influenced by each other. Obviously its an ambitious dream, but i think its an essential one. I believe that it is something that will happen, and i think having people like you leading the way is crucial. I think it goes without saying that building your own Kamp comes with a storm of issues and problems. Your going to have to be hands on with everything, so you are going to have to be the plumber, electrician, cleaner, cook, builder, and also trying to make a means of income also! it might seem like a mountain of problems, and i hope these words stick. Life is all about problems and problem solving. Hard times and situations build character, and people with character can change the world. I think that is exactly what we need to teach our children and new generations. We need to know how to clean up after ourselves and if we want something done, to know how to do it ourselves. I respect your decisions and ambitious dreams, you have inspired me, and really got me thinking about the possibilities of turning waste into new workable and usable implements! Bless you and your dreams man!
Hello dave hakkens, my name is Hélio Barcelos, I am Brazilian, I live in the western region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. I really liked this video, its project is very similar to mine, I'm already planting many trees and starting to design and adapt the farm where I live.Your videos are very useful and inspiring, I am happy to find that I am not alone in trying to prototype another way of life. Thank you for your work, it gave me hope and more willpower to continue on my project.
Wow you're fulfilling my dream! I was dreaming about this self-sustainable community project in my mind, since I was a kid. #keep the good work going, new subscriber. 👍🏻
Come to northern Portugal... It's warm in the summer but not too much, its full of water, full of good soil...and the rural zones are very cheap too! And I would be around to help you out! Lol good luck with this! I'm excited to see what's next!
Dave, you have to realise this project and you must do it in the Netherlands. It has to be grow up big, to show our consumer society, that an different lifestyle can be possible in our convenient world. I live in Germany an Russia right now, but for your project, i will come to the Netherlands.
Hey Dave. I like that idea and the plan. Still, I can recommend you checking out Earthships and Tiny Houses if you haven't. These are also ways of more sustainable housing/living. :) Especially the Earthships could fit your wishes quite well. Yeah. I appreciate your work, keep it up! :)
I just invested about $4,000 into equipment to start creating your vision. Thank you so much for doing this. I'm going to be investing in probably another 4 Grand over the course of this year and I'm developing some prototype products. Come to Canada we have lots of land here and it's cheap and the land is good for growing food. Get in touch with me, I'm not on Facebook, but we're making this dream real. We just moved on to a property that used to be a hog farm that had 7000 Hogs. We're working to reclaim the land and there is out buildings Galore an old butcher shop, an Old meat processing building and much much more. I'm going to retrofit the large meat processing building to be a plastic manufacturing and recycling building.
I do think that a Project Kamp should b feasible under any circumstance -that means in every country where people already live. Watch old villages and where they have been build... on rivers and old crossroads. Please raise this project as a Kamp that could be raised anywhere afterwards - amended with the needs of the local soil. Keep my fingers crossed for this.
Amazing work as always! Please, research and learn about the Resource Based Economy, The Venus Project and The Zeitgeist Movement! It has everything to do with this!
Of course everyone would like Dave to come to our contry haha! Im from Argentina and i always think about moving from the city to a land with this kind of sources. I dont know if this is an easy plan to do here in Arg. But i know that there is a lot of land near Patagonia with this sources (clean energy and water). If u come here im with you Dave!
What a great idea! To all the fans of these project I can reccomend you the Tiny House Project and the YT channel Hardcore sustainable, you get a lot of great ideas about new ways of living sustainable!
Do you propose a village style of communal living where everyone helps each other for the good of the community, which is very different from the capitalist competitive individualist lifestyle that most Americans live today?
Keyword is most! There's plenty of Americans, including myself, who are looking for an alternative way of living. WeWork has been working on WeLive, but I feel like there could be a more sustainable business model. Something similar to Dave's concept. It's something I'm currently working on :)
There has been a community like your Projekt Kamp in the Netherlands. it was called "De Kleine Aarde". it does not exist anymore. I have many of their books and magazines. In fact all their ideas are still actual. Gaining information, thanks to internet, is much easier nowadays. Now I understand why you were looking for a piece of land in Portugal.
Hey Dave! Nice project, I heard about Equador, maybe be a good choice. They have cheap land, is a country in development, lots of sunlight and wind, and simple ambiental and social laws, maybe you should take a look. Also, Brazil have a great opportunities here... Warm regards!
Really good plan. The key here is to share progress, problems and solutions, so that we will be able to reproduce this and make it a global movement in the future if there are no other options ;)
suggestion use a sunflower solar power so it is more convenient and powerful for your works 😉 For Im also planning to use it on my future house and business.😊 Im a fan of you, you doing everything for our planet to be save is so inspiring. Im also planing to broadcast it here in the Philippines😉 🇵🇭 From Philippines🇵🇭
I love Your work it is magical! I have a suggestion if I may, There is something called food digestor: all the waste from the food, goes to a chamber underground and there occurs the fermentation and it makes a gas, flamable i thinks it´s metane, you can use it for cooking, and even in cars, it´ps a great idea to improve the kamp with this! Good luck man I'm with you for sure!
Gustavo Pereira Ilike those too but I wouldnt build them underground, way too much work getting the fertilizer out. Id build them above ground well insulated with foam concrete or foamed geoplymer or use mycelum insulation. That way even in very hot or cold climate the bactera can work and it's less work in the upkeep.
Dave after building your PP machines I am up to help out to the next steps. I got big experience on anything energy related (MSc on Energy Planning and Management plus 8+ years as installer, designer etc) and also on natural building and more... If this is gonna be a real doers heaven I am in...
It may sound weird I am 15 so I can't join it but there is an old renewable plumbing system I designed long ago if there is a way I could send it to someone to see the plausibility and contribute it so can do something for global change it would be great.
Hi Dave, I've been on my own personal road to make a project kamp as well and am amassing resources currently. It's really cool and a big relief to see how many amazing people are feeling a similar way about the world right now, and acting with the same purpose. I'm assuming that you know about Open Source Ecology, but if not you might want to look through some of their (largely unpolished) schematics and maybe consider reaching out to Marcin - he seems like a good dude to talk to about this, having basically started his version of the project already - albeit without your outreach and high video quality.
Good materials for building houses which are 100% ecological friendly, 0% poisonous and often locally available are clay, stone and wood. Especially clay is amazingly flexible for different climates. Enjoy your process!
I think the best country to build this project is Indonesia. Indonesia has stable climate so you don't need heater/aircon in the room. Indonesia has fertile soil for plants, clean water, sun and wind.
Hi buddy, im not an agronomist but out of my own interest I have been researching a lot on agriculture and feasible vertical farming in my country. If you would like to exchange some ideas then plz reply back
Soumyanill Bhattacharjee sure. Id like to grow vegetables vertically in pet bottles in hydroponic system, but due the lack of time its just an idea. Some years ago I've started a compost bin at home using 20litres plastic bucket and vegetables waste from my kitchen and sawdust. It did not work well the way I planned and I give up the project.
Fernando Colombo de Amo i havent tried anything on compost but have recently studied the Bio-Gas reactors. If that works out then the benefits will be more. On the vertical farming point, whatever company made videos I have seen are awesome but also huge closed environmental setups where maintaining that is a huge factor for startups. Wanted to discuss further on that
Your Project is exactly what we started 2 years ago. It's 3 hect. It's too much for a couple 65years old . You are welcomed here in Andalusia ,Spain . By the way we are using permaculture principales
We are at 40 kilometers away from Sevilla you can visit us anytime . We can wait for you @ Sevilla airport . ... If you need more details let us know. Pnlistes@gmail.com Axel
Hey Dave I'm really liking the direction you're going (was hoping for it for a long time ;) ) if you ever find time to read, I suggest to read the book 'bolo bolo' by P.M. (a guy from Zurich, Switzerland). It's from the 70ies and not about the details of how to live the alternative, but a vision of how the future could be. Gave me a lot of inspiration for my political fight 😊 In solidarity, Nico
You can check out how earthships are build to get some ideas for building the houses and other spaces. I hope you succeed in your project, building something like that has always been my dream.
I love you, buddy. I really really love you. : ) Nice plan. I just want to remind you about wastewater management. My guess is you intend to use composting toilets. Even composting toilets produce a a net outflow of liquid called leachate that is too high in nitrogen to be treated by bacteria. Some permaculture groups will recommend pouring it over some wood chips or other organic matter. I strongly recommend against such casual treatment of leachate. It will end up in your pond. Devise a system to treat it correctly. Find a designer who understands aerobic treatment, anaerobic treatment, and nitrogen removal. After treatment it can be used as fertilizer in the orchard. Lastly, some people (moreso women in my experience) do not like using compost toilets because it requires hanging your butt over a dark hole with bugs in it. I don’t blame them. Consider a flushing composting toilet (google it). Using low flow toilets and an organic matter filter you could still harvest the solids and the nitrogen’s in the effluent will be a little more dilute. Good luck friend.
I actually sketched out an almost identical concept haha, I even had the tower xD. but my idea was based off hobbiton, with cob houses and earthships ;p I really think you should go for it!
I'm in Costa Rica and I have a farm between Parrita and Quepos. I've been trying to do this for a long time. I have an idea for plastic houses and working towards that goal. I have a creek for water and energy and have an idea how to recyle human waste. Tree houses and pasture. Looking for like minded souls.
I think Portugal is awesome for that. If you want i am happy to help and look for land in the north. And if you come here i'd love as well to help in making that project a reality 🙏
Please slant the roof of the hobby shop direct south make the roof slope for dec21 sun . Passively collect solar heat, and use 12V auto air conditioning compressors to move it to containment underground of the workshop, perhaps a shredded styrofoam insulated, water tight sub basement , filled with salt/antimicrobial water. or a buried superinsulated, waterproofed shipping container.
here in spain we have enormous lands full of olive trees which are constantly being sold and bought you could come to any town and ask for any interesting offer
Nice I have similar plans. But I want to create self sufficiant housing that lasts for >100 years. Instead of using trash I'd build with geoplymers and foamconcrete. Incorporating arches and mayan shaped bricks. If you want to create energy dont use solar use vertical windgenerators and use electrolysis to store energy in big tanks deep in the ground. That is currently the best way to store energy. Solid state or nanotube batteries might get better in the future but right now only pumping water uphill or creating hydrogen have low impact to store energy. For growing food check out the gardenbarrel using high beets like that will give you a better yeald and be easier on your backs. Ive been to alternative communites before and for a small one like yours that wont use machinery using the ground is gonna kill your health in no time. I also suggest you read up on permacultures and the food forrest. Whatever you do do not build bottlehomes out of plastic bottles or earthships out of tires. Earthship style houses are geat but the tires gas out and the plasticbottles will break down and mix with the soil. Im currently testing and gaining exp. with foam concrete and will do some construction aid in kenya next year. If like my suggestions Id love to go into more detail.
Sorry for a stupid question on a very cool and serious project, But while looking at the drawing you make, i wonder, How do you do this? Did you really draw it by hand? Or was it created on a computer and printed afterwards? Sorry for asking but i love your videos (the subject, but also the way you make the video's and i'm trying to find out what is 'real' and what is animated :-) Keep up the good work!
I'd love to be a part of this . this same Kamp of your exists in INDIA - a town called " Auroville in tamil nadu , India " should check it out sometime, i'm sure you'll love it , it works on the same Ideology of Sustainability.
All good stuff Hakkens. I wonder though where you will source the plastics for your recycling centre? If you are producing your own food and water then presumably you are aiming for zero waste which means zero materials. And you can't have it trucked in - that's a footprint for fossil fuels. Perhaps set up by a beach. The sea will deliver all the plastic you will need. Come to Hong Kong. Beautiful beaches - shite washed up every day.
Spiritus I love Mantzel!! He is doing awesome in Panama. I am working in my own ' humble town project' in northSpain and hope visit him someday in the future . :)
You should get a copy of Drawdown The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed To Reduce Climate Change in order to make sure your project is modernised in regard to its approach towards agriculture, heating etc etc. It really is a great book! Also. it is such a common failing that alternative communities go back in time. I think there is an ideal overlap between low tech and high tech (sustainability and competitiveness, to use a capitalistic term :P) but most often, it is the case that the high tech takes a back seat in favour of not as effective low teach solutions. My point is that project kamp needs to be a demonstrable case study for a scalable alternative, not just a novelty for a lucky few. A term I've been thinking about is Minimum Viable Society (patent pending) and have been working out what that is by asking people "What would you not want to live without in a modern society?". There's a bit more to it than that, but that's the general idea. I have a bunch of experience working and living in alternative communities and being very critical towards how they work. Sweet Christ. You most likely do not know how hard the social side of things can be. I promise, it has the most potential to be the thing that breaks your project. I would firstly advise against radical openness and if you do decide to go for something like that, be absolutely certain you have boundaries in place to ensure that problems that arise can be solved smoothly. You might be surprised how the presence of a certain personality type can degrade, or improve, your community. And also attract more of the same. This is a big one that fucked the last place I lived at, in my opinion :/ Be prepared to have all sorts of painful conversations about hierarchy. Be smart about how you disseminate information (meeting structures) and be absolutely transparent about how things work. Do you have a core group? Flat hierarchy? What form does that take? Having these things worked out can protect you against entryism or a deterioration of the culture you want to cultivate :) I could go on and on but at the base of it I would stress that you need boundaries worked out for many things (depending on who you attract, drug conversations will be a biggy if you don't have boundaries clearly set out and enforced). It is a lot easier getting this right the first time than trying to work with a tangle of spontaneously made and poorly enacted rules. Many people might advocate for no rules. Be wary of those people. Another common one is when people are around for a while but find they don't want to be there anymore to actually DO things (this is a quirk of working+living communities that can be tricky compared to just living communities.) where they have a sunk cost in the Kamp and so stay because they can't bring themselves to go somewhere else, even though they've lost their direction and purpose. In regards to reading I would strongly recommend The Utopia Experiment. The authour is someone that tried to set up a community in Scotland that fell apart and landed him in a bunch of strife. It demonstrates some of the above problems. If you think my experience might be useful for you to get some critical opinions and thoughts from, please get in touch. I can also maybe connect you to a couple of projects or people that you might want to visit (Europe) and a couple of articles you might find useful to read :) I also strongly recommend critical field work, particularly towards social structures. Maybe even get some anthropologists or sociologists involved. IDEO style. I read that living communities fail at a greater rate than Silicon Valley start ups, and I'm sure you know that is a high rate of failure so tread with caution, but at the same time informed confidence because I really want to see this happen! :)
Also, be careful with the people in the comments that say "OH! I've got a project that is similar and we should team up!". I have met so many dodgy guys (they are always guys) that think they have a solution to utopia if only people listen. Sometimes it's obvious that it's a waste of time because crystal energy or free power comes up early in conversation. More often it's an untenable plan relying on money that doesn't exist or a social structure that ignores how most people have been shaped by society/evolution or would like to live their lives. A slightly more contentious point, if anyone tries to sell you the Venus Project, don't listen. A deep dive into what their actual implementable plan was, had me find that they would open a museum and theme park about the Venus Project, not actually do any of the vague sci-fi stuff that they write about :/ Just be careful, man. Alternative communities and alternatives to capitalism can sometimes be a landscape of desperate folks and untenable ideas.
Hey Dave, great idea. I have a right to claim 2ha from the state in Ukraine (could be used as common land), and if it is claimed in the village where for sale plots are aplenty - 1/2 arce individual plots with permission to built would be in a region of 1000-1500 EUROs. But, as in any country there are still immigration rules to consider. EU citizens can live 3 months in 3 months out.
Hi Dave, I have a land in the center of Portugal (tomar - linhaceira) which combines agricultural field with a medium large house and a small forest. If you would like to know more I could arrange when you go to Portugal for a visit.
As far as the building of structures goes, have you looked into mycomaterials yet? They're underused and under-researched, but there are companies like MycoWorks that are using them in proof-of-concepts. From what I've read their material is just Oyster Mushroom mycelium in fine agricultural waste, and they add some hydrogen peroxide for a denser structure.
One should make it clear that the proposed "commune" cannot become too big because otherwise that would be something like mini USSR. I also understand that the project is mostly about tackling global problems so it would be reasonable to do it near a big city where there is an acces to wide techonological and human resources (some people can visit the place from time to time)
