Architecture LIVE 5
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| Preparations for the festival exert a strong gravitational pull on us. Flyers and posters are packaged and consigned to the post. We cadge lifts and internet access in the increasing awareness that some people are becoming tired of our neediness. This makes for a delicate dance. |
| It is with sincere gratitude therefore that I wend my way to north Leitrim in a borrowed car to teach at the Organic Centre. I examine the road frontages on the way as I might those in a foreign country. What sort of lives are lived behind these facades I wonder? |
| I am to give a 1-day workshop on sustainable house design. This I deliver as a serious of controlled explosions, conscious as I am of my desire to not hold back in any way. The students are relieved and shocked at the same time. They welcome the truth but the implications are another matter entirely. |
| A high level of consensus presently exists regarding the profound change that has occured in the world over the past year. No one is quite sure what this change is but everyone agrees that it has happened. |
| My own take on things is that the illusions surrounding money have been revealed in such a way that no one can deny it. While this might not be much of a shock, the nature of the replacement system is where the difficulty lies for people. |
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| The road to sustainability is long and hard. Kiss goodbye to the comfort zone of your fulfilled desires and enter into the new reality, the land of opportunity where fresh starts are a way of life! |
| It is to this shocking but potentially liberating place that people now find themselves directed, not so much by their heads but buy their hearts. This is a true reflection of what is happening within the wider world, where a rebalancing of the weight of male-inspired, scientific-rational thought forms with a more contemplative, feminine and relaxed way of life is taking place. |
| While this is fairly obvious to most people the sticking point lies in embracing this new way of life. Not many people really want to live simply because there seems to be too many downsides – loss of status; insecurity; potential poverty; denial of opportunities to children; major ongoing commitments; etc., etc.. |
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| During the course of the day the students work hard to reach the heart of the resistances which hold them back. Afterwards, we break up and return to our respecive places in the world. |
| I wander through Manorhamilton and Dromohaire distributing flyers and putting up posters for the festival. It is heading towards mid-summer but it is blustery and cold. The streets and shopfronts are bleak. The only inviting place I enter is a busy pub where I am drowned in a mix of fumes and body heat. |
| I wonder why I am doing in this place. My conscious mind ticks off reasons while my imagination stutters and falters. I think of Alanna back in the cabin, gazing at the rolling view that carries on to the horizon. It is the conjoined threads of our creativity that weave the spell which dazzles us here. We can but submit to the momentum of this and await revelation. |
| I order the wood for the roof, the subfloor and the lean-to which has sprouted from the plan at the north gable. This will house the wet rooms and act as lobby to the warm interior. John has tracked down a roofing supplier. The biggest outstanding issue now is the source of the daub so I put out a request for this. |
| Everything is heaving into motion. I cling to this lumbering beast and hope for the best. An email arrives from my contact at RTE television confirming that the proposed filming of the EconoSpace construction is to go ahead as planned. This adds momentum to the unfolding project and quickens the pace of developments. |
| I prepare the ground for the building work, scaling the naked frame taking measurements. From aloft the countryside has the appearance of a reclining beast. Below me Alanna plants a veggie garden while above late flights out of Heathrow rumble towards north America. |
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| I draw together the pieces of EconoSpace information which I have compiled over the years. This scrapbook of facts, observations and intentions tells its own story. I see myself in this, the lone traveller crossing the wide desert. This is encouragement enough to keep me moving forward, the itinerant sheltermaker headed towards the distant horizon. |
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| Architecture LIVE 6 |
| Architecture LIVE 4 |
Peter and Alanna. Comghairdeacheas, Well done, Bien Hecho, for giving your peace full energy over the past weekend to a new world. I regret i could not make it. Have pushed the boundary forward on similar occasions though! Good to see that responsible crazy Gillies Macbain was supporting. Keep him alert and not regressing to the neolitic pasado.
Amor.
A fellow responsible crazy
Your work is up on http://www.EcoHomesandGardens.ie... a perpetual cause!