Where have all the communes gone? Where in the UK are the communes? Does anyone know of any? Have you ever stayed in one or can you recommend one? Would you like to start one? How do you go about starting a successful commune. Any contributions welcome
Depends on what sort of commune if you go to diggers and dreamers http://www.diggersanddreamers.org.uk/links.htm there are links what do you want to get out of community living ? you can live in ones designed for people with similair beliefs etc or in your own home I have some involvement with housing co ops where i live but on a personal level would like to build and eco community such as described here http://www.earthship.com/
Thanks for that information. The earthship com site was the one that inspired me to post here actually. I don't know how some of these buildings would measure up with the harsher weather over here in the UK ( Earthships were designed in the USA ) but I do like the idea of using car tyres, straw bales etc to produce more eco friendly housing. Same here. I would really love to do that however the biggest problem with any commune is getting the right people motivated and having enough money. Money is always the issue. Sure, a few people could sell their houses and possibly raise enough money for a plot of land to build upon but you have to plan ahead and a small plot of land inhibits future development which is why the successful existing builds ( mostly again in the USA ) such as the village Zonk pointed out are very organised and built by people with existing wealth to put into the project. Also I noticed it was in Scotland in the middle of nowhere so land wouldn't be a great issue by the looks of it. Also, a commune is often thought of as a group of people with the same agenda. That is they are all hippies or anarchists or want to live off the land and a whole range of stereotypes that people think exist, and of course, do exist in some communities. What if a group of hard working people sold up their properties, bought land and just built an eco village. Would it work? What about income? We all know that many existing communes recommend holistic services, home grown produce and crafts and such like but there is no reason why people living in a commune should not hold a job in the wider community. I would be concerened about a commune where a small percentage of people worked hard to help maintain it and nurture its expansion whilst a proportion just sat on their bums, smoked dope all day and watched the others work. This is why most communes have not lasted and why communities built by business people such as the one Zonk mentoned have prospered. The buggers have the money, they know how to work and they achieve what they set out to do. I really wonder how a group of ordinary, non politically motivated individual people function and prosper, if indeed it actually could. It would be great to see examples of where this has worked - if there are any examples.
The earthship have built here in Brighton but isnt a home but is this http://www.lowcarbon.co.uk/index.html
