Gaviotas Intentional Community

A few years ago I was introduced to a really cool book called Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World. It's about an intentional community in Colombia that was founded by a visionary inventor named Paolo Lugari. The premise was that the cost of living was far too great for most people to live comfortably, and in the process, massive resources were being wasted. He set out to invent simple devices that saved time and energy (in a real way), that also leveraged technology to help people. One of the first projects was a solar hot water heater placed on each apartment building or house, that preheated the water before entering the boiler by just using the sun. This saved countless kilowatts, and established Lugari and those he worked with as true innovators.

Eventually the idea was struck to move into the woods and start a sustainable eco-village. Many trials and tribulations later, there is an incredible model of how to live off the grid and on the land. It is nearly impossible to get updated information about the community online, and the seemingly endless civil war in Colombia has not helped matters. I highly recommend the book, and reading more about an incredible project.

Friends of Gaviotas (official page)

Wikipedia article on Gaviotas