This is my second post inspired by a visit to LILAC, an innovative co-housing project in Leeds built in 2013 using straw bale and timber construction. Lilac is an acronym that reflects the initiative's three core values: Low impact living (covered in my previous post), affordable, community. I'll be writing more about the thorny issues of affordability and housing after attending a workshop hosted by Green Christian on the subject on 24th Jan.
When I try explaining Lilac to others, people usually can't imagine what I'm talking about. Eco-housing, certainly, but living in community?
That is, if you don't live in your own home with your own garden and keep your stuff all to yourself, the only other possible way most people can think to describe your set up is a "commune" or a kibbutz (or possibly a monastery). Here's news for you: there is a continuum between individualism and collectivism and you can choose where you stand on it. It's not as all-or-nothing as many people imagine.
That is, if you don't live in your own home with your own garden and keep your stuff all to yourself, the only other possible way most people can think to describe your set up is a "commune" or a kibbutz (or possibly a monastery). Here's news for you: there is a continuum between individualism and collectivism and you can choose where you stand on it. It's not as all-or-nothing as many people imagine.
In fact, the model that LILAC is based on was around long before communes: a village, where neighbours know each other and share ideas, skills, help (whether babysitting or help to build a new house: every household contributed at least a week's work to build the houses) and things that you both need such as a lawn mower so you don't need to buy two.
Living together isn't the only way to do this - some churches manage to be genuine communities, but only if people are willing to share beyond normal meeting times. For example, in May my bike was stolen from my shed. I discovered this as I was about to ride off to church. I mourned my loss with various sympathetic friends when I got there, one of whom offered me the use of their spare bike for several weeks till I could buy a new one. This level of trust and practical help is what communities are all about.
Indeed, those who favour individualism as a way of life are in a tiny minority in the world todayas excellently captured in Meic Pearse's book "Why the Rest Hates the West". Meic points out the bizarreness of most UK books about other cultures or periods in history, which inevitably contain phrases such as "family is really important to the Chinese people" or "people in Nigeria put the needs of the community above personal preferences". Actually, try naming one that doesn't. Our approach is very odd to most people at most periods of history.
Of course, one very good reason to value the help of your village is that without the support of others in an agricultural or remote community, you would die from starvation. I've tried growing food on allotments and my veg plot and I can tell you it's hard work! If feeding myself depended entirely on me, I'd have a very boring diet and probably go hungry a lot. But I'm part of a society that supplies what I need in exchange for what I'm able to contribute, in my case skill and expertise in building on difficult ground conditions (as you'll have seen from my ground engineering posts).
There's another great reason to value community as well: caring for each other. The truth is that:
There's another great reason to value community as well: caring for each other. The truth is that:
"It takes a village to raise a child" African proverbCertainly my friend's children really enjoyed living there, in a safe environment with plenty of space to play (several treehouses, swings and a beautiful but well-fenced-off pond, some of which make a virtue out of a necessity due to challenges with parts of the site including a shallow sewer and a number of protected trees around the boundary). There are friends in every house and you can call on each other to play or have dinner together. Some people move to the countryside dreaming of a community they imagine you can only get in a village - and here it is in the middle of urban Leeds!
Think for a minute just how corrosive a culture of self-sufficiency and independence can be. A doctor tells of her experience in A&E, where an elderly man is brought in three days after he fell and injured his leg - the complications are much worse than if he'd had friends to pop in on him several times a day and check he's OK. An epidemic of loneliness afflicts people of every age, particularly the young (living alone or with housemates, often in a new place for work trying to make friends) and the old )link). But we persist in using social media rather than being sociable.
So here's a challenge: why not get more involved in your own community? It doesn't take much to wish your neighbours good morning and ask how they are doing regularly. In Barcelona, social media is even helping combat loneliness through an app which connects older people with 10 others nearby who will pop in for a chat or to help out.
See also:
- 100 Resilient Cities - exploring community living and resilience around the world
- Low Impact Living in Leeds: Three Stories
- How do we build sustainable infrastructure?
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