manifesto

The mega-industrialisation and the economy focused capitalist mindset of society object against the obvious needs of the world to take a step back, to take a breath of fresh air. The earth cannot keep up with this unnatural and forced abuse. Multiple issues of overpopulation, climate change, poverty and pandemics start arising, and today more than ever we have reached a state where something needs to be done urgently. Even though we see an increasing sensitivity about the subject, with more people becoming aware of the urgency of the problem, it is extremely difficult, close to impossible, to rebuild the society in a way where the governing bodies are not the powerful people with economic interest, in a time when our dependency on the internet has become life encroaching. However, I believe that at a time of immediate disaster come the strongest changes, and people become strongly aware of the issue.

With the increasing world of virtuality, the city has lost its value. The sense of citizenship and gathering has become secondary, with everything possible through the internet with a click of a button. A city is a man-made concept and aids in our lifestyle. It promotes the ideas of collectivity, family, gatherings, provides a place to satisfy the human characteristics/needs of nostalgia, place-making, communal gatherings, connection, independence. However, it also cultivates and promotes some negative human characteristics such as competitiveness, greed, arrogance, fear and boasting. We start valuing things like possessions, higher work rankings, Instagram followers, more than genuine mental wealth and well-being. As a species we have become so engulfed in all this, that we lost the true meaning of our existence. This allows and supports the capitalist society to expand and take over. Moreover, in the day of the pandemic, we see that gatherings are frowned-upon, shops are closed, restaurants are only a place to provide you with takeaway food, jobs are all done online. This consequently provides further problems of the suffering of the economy and more poverty. The gap between the rich and the poor intensifies and this will consequently provide even more problems in the future, as this is not easily reversible since it’s not in the favour of the powerful people who govern to change this. We start focusing more and more on the facade, the ostentation, since the art industries which are as important for the human soul as food is, are disintegrating, they have no proper funding and suffer great poverty.

A solution proposal of the promotion of off-grid living to deal with the urgent issues of our day, the pandemic crisis and the climate change crisis. It is not in favour of the rich and wealthy, of the mass-producing corporations to promote off-grid living, as they wouldn’t financially benefit, and unfortunately these are the people who we follow, as they have all the power in the media, the advertisements etc. I propose an anarchist rebellion against this. The case study of various off-grid communities, schools and camps will allow me to pull out the fundamental aspects of off-grid living. What does it really mean? What are the key elements that make it successful? How do off-grid communities work? The Secmol Campus in Phey, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, India by engineer, innovator and education reformist, Sonam Wangchuk, provides a very interesting example of how an off-grid community works in the peripheral of a city. Another examples that will be studied is ‘Freedom Cove’ in Vancouver, a completely off-grid house of an artist couple. Lastly, I will examine and study ‘Tinker’s Bubble’ in Somerset, England, a self-sufficient community of tiny houses and thatched huts.

It is unrealistic to say that the 21st century world would accept the transition from an easy lifestyle, to a lifestyle of the self-sustaining off-grid living. However, by promoting and introducing some off-grid communities in the city or peripheral city, I find a possibility that this could become a trend, more people will become aware of the goods of off-grid living, more people will volunteer in the building and sustaining of these off-grid communities. This mindset could introduce a new breath of fresh air to the fast pace lifestyle of cities. Besides, off-grid living is fundamentally based on vernacular building methods, using the earth’s infinite resources to produce heat and gather water, recycling and reusing everything. It is proven that nature increases endorphins and promotes a healthier mind and psych, so I believe that such introductions of more simple ways of living will be a temptation for many people, especially in crises times like the ones we are facing now. Moreover, there cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach. Each off-grid community area must be tailored to the specific area, the climate, the possible needs of the community etc.

Could the state of isolation that we are facing today, result in empowerment? Result in activism and rebellion against the system? Now is a pivotal point to understand these ingenious, vernacular and primal ways of living, and if not going completely off-grid, perhaps adopting and adapting many of these zero-energy, zero-waste systems to our mass-consuming and exaggerated materialistic way of living. Through this isolation and fear that we are facing, the state of urgency becomes even more apparent, and while isolation can intensify the negative feelings, it can also give birth to a renewed way of thinking, way of living, that syncs more with the organic evolution of the earth, using the earth not as a tool but as a partner to build our lives with.

6. PROGRESSION VS ROOTS

In our day and age, where science and technology governs the world, is it realistic to ignore science and progression and go back to vernacular building methods, back to the roots? A solution possibility to play with off-grid communities using regenerative design. Taking from the advantages of the progression of science to deeply explore methods such as biomimicry, and use them to our advantage to find more ways of providing/helping to provide self-sustaining communities with the necessities of survival. The solution of green growth to the ongoing debate of growth and degrowth.