Gathering Together: Communities That Serve People and Planet

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2. Ecovillages

These communities integrate a low-impact lifestyle with a supportive social environment. There are 323 ecovillages around the world, 73 of which are in the United States, according to the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN.ecovillage.org). These housing developments can be urban or rural, small or large, but they have one thing in common: They emphasize ecological design and building, permaculture, alternative energy, and other practices that help reduce negative impact on the planet.

Ecovillage Spotlight: Tryon Farm, Michigan City, Indiana

Located an hour’s drive or train ride east of Chicago, Tryon Farm encompasses a prairie, farmland, ponds, dunes and woods within its 170 acres. The first houses were completed in 2001; when it’s finished, the ecovillage will contain 150 homes in seven settlements, with 120 acres of open space. While a traditional homebuilder might have bulldozed the dunes, filled in the wetlands and covered the prairie with tract homes, developer and architect Ed Noonan and his wife, Eve, had a different vision. They created homes that nestle into the landscape, disturbing it as little as possible.

In The Pond settlement, Ed created grass-rooted houses, built of concrete with earth piled on two sides, that blend seamlessly into the surrounding dunes. In The Woods, Ed designed tall, narrow “treehouses” covered with Cor-Ten steel which, as it rusts, forms a protective coating that “makes it blend in with the tree trunks,” he says. The Village features “courthouses”— squares of homes facing a central courtyard.

Residents don’t buy the ground beneath their houses; instead, they get a 150th interest in the entire settlement. The Tryon Farm Institute, a nonprofit land conservancy, owns all the open space, so homeowners pay taxes only on their houses.

Eco-friendly features include septic tanks that flow into gravel beds covered in tuberous plants. The oxygen from the plant roots cleans the water, and the waste feeds the plants. “After seven days, the water is state certified to be clean enough to swim in,” Ed says. The purified water is pumped into the fields of hay and alfalfa used to feed the livestock.

Many of the houses, which average about 1,000 square feet, have bamboo floors and recycled-denim insulation. The old brick farmhouse was turned into the community’s bed and breakfast. “The idea is that guests stay in the farmhouse so individual houses don’t need extra bedrooms and can be built smaller,” Ed says.
Contact: www.TryonFarm.com

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