Part Two

 What might be some better, environmentally sound alternatives to the ways most people live and build dwellings on the Earth?

Right now the two common limitations for considering alternatives are: that people want or need to have car access, necessitating building roads, and two, owning their house on land as a separate piece of the surrounding landscape.  the result is this subdividing of land and ever-increasing network of roads.  The land prices vary depending on the location and proximity to cities, but it's more or less the same picture everywhere.

What could be different and how is that better?

One model I've seen emerging lately, that I like, is the Tiny-House movement.  More specifically, people sharing land to park tiny houses on wheels, and in some cases build a small community.

This is not only a more environmentally friendly way to live, but it's much more affordable and it gives people the opportunity to create a lifestyle together, not as separate neighbours who must tolerate each other at best, but as people with a common purpose.  

Some beneficial possibilities of this communal way of life involves the sharing of resources and labour.  

It is practical to harness renewable solar or wind energy, store it and distribute it in a micro DC-grid to each Tiny House or Hut, even wirelessly.  This scheme saves on investing in separate electrical systems, or installation of separate mains-grid services (a costly process).  

Same with another important resource, Water.  Pumping and purifying water is also energy-intensive, involving expensive infrastructure and labour to install, which could be more efficiently shared between several households.   Supplementing well-water for drinking and cooking with collected rain-water to be used for washing and watering also makes a lot of sense.   Water storage could be done in a large underground reservoir that collects clean rainwater at times of abundance. 

 Another proposal is to have a communal Kitchen, toilets and bathrooms.  This streamlines a lot of infrastructure if people are willing to eat together, which is a great socially bonding experience.   It saves personal time too, as each individual doesn't need to prepare 3 meals a day and do the dishes.   This appeals to me especially, although I enjoy cooking.  Having individual access to food and the kitchen can be arranged if desired.

I've lived at an Ashram where this was not permitted, and I didn't miss it, I could still make my own tea and have little snacks throughout the day.One benefit was that my health and weight improved from the healthy diet prepared by the trained chef.  The meals were diverse and nutritious, and all plant-based, with no processed food or added sugar.   

Although all these Ideas are beneficial, many people would reject this kind of lifestyle, simply because they are used to doing things their own way, and not wanting to depend on others.  

Yet we all depend on others, though they may be far away and unknown, people who grow and prepare our food, generate electricity, provide services and products.  

In order to make life less wasteful, it needs to be more interconnected, local and self-sufficient.   

 Good evening,  

I haven't written in a while and much has happened since then, moves, relationships come and gone, successes and failures, mostly good health, but also some difficult times.

This is a hard time, not only because I am living alone and it's winter, during an epidemic.  I am facing some difficult realities about the way people relate to one another and to the world.  I would like to see more love and care in the world, and in my little corner as well.

One of my pet peeves right now is the new neighbours who are building a house.  I didn't used to have neighbours there.  My feeling is a loss of what used to be "nature", quiet, pristine, wild land.

Now there is a house, built from concrete and wood, a modern affair, which in my view is ugly and destructive of the environment.

I realize this is sounding like a rant and it is.  I am not so much against people, who want to live in a beautiful place, close to nature.   I am opposed to people destroying the beauty of the land, by building and developing it in a bad way.

First I have to clarify what I think is a "bad way"; and second, contemplate if there can exist a "good way", in which people can live harmoniously with the beauty of the natural world.

Everything I say is subjective, but some of you may agree or think along similar lines.

To me the "bad way" is a modern city with it's outstretching suburbs, built for cars in mind, and everyone owning their own house with a little back yard, the illusion of a private piece of "nature".

There is no more nature after we start building. the first job is to destroy it, normally in the most polluting, energy-expanding way.  This insane way of developing just spreads and is copied over and over, like a virus, there is little imagination or attempts to integrate nature with these monstrosities.  I would not want to live in a traditionally built house, much less in a suburb neighbourhood, that is my idea of hell, but I know there are even worst places people live in.

Now for the Positive thinking part - the "good way" of conceiving and building human habitation.

Is there an alternative, a way in which people live in aesthetically pleasing shelters and spaces, while being surrounded by pristine, undisturbed wilderness.   

I think it's possible...