Eco-construction project in Bajouca, Portugal

Detalhes

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  Descrição

  Hi, my name is Paul Bruno, my father is Italian and my mother is Dutch, and I mostly grew up in the Netherlands, where in 1998 I got my diploma as an art teacher, after which I worked as an independent artist with my own company called arti parti - Multi Medial Happy Happenings, combining all art forms into one harmonic experience for which I then constructed large bamboo structures using Sacred Geometry, until I left for Kenya in 2011 to set up a permacultural project based on the Power Flower Geometry, where after 5 years of trying my very best but repeatedly failing to cooperate with the local population at various locations I finally gave up and moved to Portugal in 2017 to buy my own piece of land (which isn't possible in Kenya for foreigners), but it took me an other 4 years to find a suitable piece of land for my project, which I finally found and bought in the summer of 2021 in Bajouca, near Leiria, in a beautiful moderately populated region of central Portugal at only 20 kilometres from the sea, that is specialised in pottery and forestry and has many nice places to visit nearby like museums, restaurants, pizzerias, and bars, various festivals, natural parks, lakes and ofcourse the beach, one of which (at Nazare) had the Guinness world record highest wave that was ever surfed!
  My piece of land is a true slice of paradise of more than 5 hectares that even exceeded my own expectations; half of it used to be a clay quarry upto around 15 years ago, where clay was collected for many years to be used for ceramics, so now this part looks like a secret valley to me, or like the crater of a volcano because of the clay walls of over 10 meters high all around the large flat-bottomed pit where all that clay was removed. This part is perfectly suitable for the Sacred Geometry based design of my permacultural project, although I couldn't start activities there before February 2022.
  The other half of my land is a wild forest full of large indigenous trees and shrubs with a lovely river alongside it, and it is here where I set up my base camp and where I will now need some help in the construction of my first house, before the 5 other cob buildings included in my permaculture design can be built. I've used my rudimentary base camp along with my car to sleep in upto recently, but now that we finished the temporary raincover for my house I already moved into it for the winter as its bigger and more comfortable with my woodstove to keep us warm.
  Besides joining me there I also offer volunteers the possibility to sleep in separate tents, at the base camp, in my car or in a hammock if you prefer, and if all goes well within a few weeks we'll also offer volunteers a more comfortable and luxurious place to stay during winter, inside a fully furnished shipping container that has it's own toilet, shower, kitchen, bedrooms, terrace, woodstove, fridge, washing machine and solar system.
  I also provide 3 meals a day in exchange for maximally 5 hours of work.
  A lot of work preparing the land with a bulldozer is now done so there are now hardened roads, 7 terraced orchards plus a "tropical island", a water harvesting system that makes use of a gravity driven ram-pump, a beautiful circular area cleared and flattened in the middle of the forest where we started building the first house, and an other huge circular area measuring 1 hectare in the former clay quarry that is cleared and flattened in preparation of the Power Flower shaped mandala consisting of aquaponic water channels.
  Last winter we mainly focussed on planting lots of fruit trees and bushes to make use of the overwhelming abundance of rainwater that came down, and during spring and summer we continued building the house by working on the roof/second floor and close the walls inbetween 10 poles in a circle (decagon) using straw-bales, that will probably be covered with cob upcoming spring, after which we can start building the wooden dome on the second floor that will also serve as the final roof.
  After this house is built our next mission is building a greenhouse and finishing up the kitchen garden to move further towards the maximally self-sufficient ecovillage that this project is meant to be, so there will always be plenty of work to be done for which volunteers will forever be welcomed, and even more permanent arrangements could be made for people who want to be part of the cooperative we can set up once we produce a marketable surplus of farming products, and when also some cob houses for ecotourists have been built that will generate extra income, so although my project here is just setting its first baby steps who knows what this invitation might still lead to in the future...

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  Tipos de ajuda e oportunidades de aprendizado

  Projetos artísticos

  Ajuda em projetos ambientais

  Jardinagem

  Construção/faça você mesmo

  Ajuda em fazenda

  Criar/cozinhar refeições caseiras
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  Objetivos de sustentabilidade da ONU que este anfitrião quer atingir

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  O que é isso?
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  Oportunidades de intercâmbio cultural e aprendizado

  Sacred Geometry and permaculture (design) are my two main areas of expertise which I am eager to transfer to all who are willing to learn more about these subjects, but I'm not sure this fully counts as cultural exchange, so in the more classic sense this area offers an insight into an aspect of traditional Portuguese culture relating to ceramics and also to forestry, as nearby the forests are situated which provided the straight pinewood from which the Portuguese ships were built that conquered "the new world" during the colonial era, and there are many nearby places where beautiful ceramics are produced by experienced and skilful hands, one of which offers pottery courses that I follow, where a few volunteers were allowed to join me to their great content.

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  Ajuda

  I firstly need more help for the construction of my house and making the shipping container ready for moving into. For this work some building experience would help, but is not a necessary requirement, because I have lots of building experience and skills myself, so just some more helping hands is all I really need.
  The next job will be building the greenhouse and permacultural kitchen garden, and also for this experience is helpful but not a necessity, as I have been farming for the past 15 years.
  Then comes setting up my big mandala shaped permaculture design based on Sacred Geometry at the former clay quarry, for which the same (lack of) necessary requirements apply.

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  Idiomas

  Idiomas
  Inglês: Fluente
  Italiano: Fluente
  Holandês: Fluente
  Alemão: Iniciante
  Espanhol: Iniciante
  Francês: Iniciante
  Português: Iniciante

  Este anfitrião oferece intercâmbio de idiomas
  I would like to learn how to speak Portuguese more fluently, as I am still only at the beginners level and when Portuguese people speak rapidly among themselves I miss most of the details.
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  Acomodação

  Tents, one of my cars and hammocks for the guests, including use of my base camp with 4 couches covered by two large tarps under which I also just built a rudimentary kitchen. For now I have only one extra tent (two persons), a hammock with tarp, but I will buy more tents when I know what type of tent sizes would be the most appropriate accommodation for the volunteers depending on being singles, couples, or families, and soon a fully equipped shipping container will be added to the accomodations I offer.
  The food provided will be breakfast, lunch and dinner which we will eat together, I can prepare this myself, as I love to cook, but if one of the volunteers likes to concern themselves with this task that could also work well, so I can remain focussed on coordinating the other tasks.
  Vegetarian or vegan is possible, but not necessary, depending on the wishes of the volunteers.

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  Algo mais...

  There is a bus stop at less than one minute walking from the entrance of my land, which goes to the nearest big city of Leiria, from where one can take public transport to the rest of Portugal.

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  Mais alguns detalhes

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    Acesso à internet

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    Acesso à internet limitado

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    Temos mascotes

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    Somos fumantes

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    Pode hospedar famílias

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  Pode hospedar nômades digitais

  You can make use of my mobile internet connection whenever you like using my phone as a hotspot (tethering), sharing my unlimited data plan, and my big solar system is now also finally working well, so lights and keeping our laptops and phones charged is not a problem anymore.

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  Espaço para estacionar campervans

  There are many beautiful spaces available where a (camper)van or car can be parked.

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  Pode aceitar animais

  All pets are most welcome!

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  Quantos Workawayers pode acomodar?

  Mais de 2

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  Horas previstas

  Maximum 5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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