The éco-jardin du Périgord wants to be an independent, ecological village. Neighbourhood shall be as important as the autonomy of the people.In the village there is room for at least 100 people, a village in a more or less traditional way without mayor and church. Neither spiritual nor politic conventions are given here, everyone is welcome.We do intentionally not address a specific group of people, because we want to show that it's possible for everyone to live ecological and sustainable without a big effort. You should neither waive comfort nor invest a tremendous amount of comfort in heating and gardening.

For starting the project we look for people, who want to make this vision reality.There are about 140 000m² (14ha) of land. At the moment there is a big house together with two holiday homes. The big house offers you a hall and numerous rooms, that are now used as guest rooms. Furthermore you find here a canteen kitchen, an antique oven and a small brewery. These present a lot of possibilities to use it: As a restaurant, for conferences, as an art-studio...A part of the project can also be used for tourism.The task now is to find people, especially families, who want to live here. Who want to keep their own, independent live and yet also to participate in the community.You can buy a piece of land from the owner and build your home. The houses shall be build in the style of the local tradition with a few changes, so that it will work as a low-energy-house. For building the houses we offer a simple concept to save time and money. With the simplicity of this concept it is possible to build the house by yourself (see “building your house“). Neither an apply with electricity nor water is necessary (see “water, warmth and electricity“) . Furthermore the food can mainly be self-produced as there is enough land to use (for our basics and ideas see “garden”).

low energy house in the style of local tradition

For building up your home we offer three different concepts:

1: wood- frame- construction

2: metal- frame- construction

3: construction with miscanthus

The houses should be built in the style of local tradition. They work as low energy houses to reduce the amount of energy that is usually needed.The seize is not regulated. But the house should be suitable for every age and for disabled people. This is easily done by having a bathroom and bedroom at the ground floor and to adjust the level of work discs, outlets etc.Every building can be finished in three weeks. The simplicity of our concepts gives you the choice to build it yourself. Besides the houses are cost- saving. Building in an ecological way with comfort doesn't have to be expensive!

•water, warmth and electricity

Sustainable and local energyElectricity and hot water are going to be produced by cogeneration. The cogeneration will be run by duo solar panels as well as miscanthus- pellets or briquettes (more about miscanthus see “building your house”). The duo solar panels will on every 5-6 houses on central buildings where e.g. the washing machines are.The supply of water will mainly come from rainwater. The water is collected, held in cane brake- stocks and purified there until the water has drinking water quality. Also with the wastewater is so moved.Pure drinking water is for precautionary reasons purchased from the city in order to guarantee consistent quality.

•garden

In harmony with natureOn the 14ha of land is enough room for gardening or farming. We are relying primarily on local plants and old varieties in order to maintain the natural biodiversity.As a soil-improving measures we will use wood mulch known as Ramial Chip Wood or RCW (French: Bois Reméal Fragmenté, abbreviated BRF). This has several advantages: first RCW acts as a shield that prevents the soil from drying out. Then it suppresses the weeds what brings a less labor. In addition RCW, which is usually made of several types of hardwood and some Foliage, sets many important nutrients free during decomposing. These will gradually be handed on the ground. Instead of usual wood also miscanthus can be used as mulch. The plant soaks hardly any water and decomposes so substantially slower than wood. When conventional mulch have to be renewed every 2-3 years, miscanthus mulch lasts about 10 years. The nutrients are nevertheless set free.Another method of agriculture we want to apply is aquaponics. It is a combination of growing fish and vegetables. The vegetables are grown similar to the method of hydroponics. With hydroponics the plant is cultivated on water, in which nutrients are dissolved. In the case of aquaponics the water is taken from the fish tank. It contains all the essential nutrients, so any further addition can be waived. The plants filter the water and it can be given back clean to the fish tank. This saves the purification of water and meanwhile one can also grow vegetables and fruits!