An incredible futuristic housing project in Europe has captured people’s imaginations – and it’s down to the way its residents live to preserve every element of life.
Located in northern Europe, the eco-village set up has a strict zero-waste policy, and endeavours to create a community of neighbours who all pitch in to preserve their environment.
Residents try to be “self-sufficient for food and water and a lot of energy” at the Ecovillage Boekel in the south of the Netherlands, Euronews says.
While this approach might sound daunting, the project manager warns this could one day be the norm, with the raging threat of man-made climate change already hitting. The site is fitted with multiple circular rings of compact housing units, each fitted with a raft of solar panels on top to produce energy.
Every house is built with “organic materials” like hemp and wood – both of which are renewable – and with the aim of having as little “embodied carbon” as possible – meaning it hasn’t been transported far or processed too much. The little housing estate vows to be so self-sufficient that it may not ever need third-party recycling services.
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It sits next to its own food forest and is heated via a eco-friendly César heating system, which embodies 600 solar panels across the village.
This then reaches an optimum temperature of 450C, and then the heat is spread across the homes – creating a “circle CO2 emission-free system”.
One local resident said that the houses have “absorbed more CO2 than they have put in the air”.
The residents’ shared food forest is a site where everyone gets involved with planting their own food and vegetables, among trees and shrubs which aim to make the area more resistant to the more extremes of weather.
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Toilets, meanwhile, are just the same as most of ours, but with one key difference after flushing – the water is sent to a tank to be filtered and cleaned naturally, before being infiltrated into the soil outside.
While this eco-village is set to be pioneering and set an example of what can be acheived in the future, it has already won awards for its initiative. It was voted the most sustainable organisation in the Netherlands in 2021.
The scheme is also growing in popularity in the Netherlands, with a reported 43 other villages lining up to achieve eco-village status.
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