http://www.newwind.fr/

http://www.ecomotive.org/

http://archfly.com/featured/10-sexy-and-affordable-prefab-homes/

A reasonable resource for inspiration.

This near perfect natural birth was the result of a lot of reading and several courses taken by my partner who in turn educated me. Unlike our first child’s birth, this was how it should be. With our first, we naively thought the midwives and doctors would respect our wishes and do what was best for my wife and our baby. Reality was they manipulated us to get around my partners birth plan wishes, to do things their way, which was purely for their benefit and detrimental to the health of my baby and my wife.

It is all to easy to blame them and be angry at them for what they did, but ultimately the full responsibility lay with us. We weren’t informed, and thus blindly trusted the system to do the best for us. Had we been informed, had we known what our options really were, things would have been very, very different.

Far too often we just go along with things just because that is the way it is. Blindly without questioning the professional who directs us. But when you do question, when you do see alternatives and then do things that are right for you, the results can be quite incredible.

And so here’s the dream… Not to just buy a property in some residential estate where all the places look the same and the main driving factor behind the construction was the profit for the constructor and investors rather than the needs of the inhabitants and the environmental footprint of the development. No, but instead to design and build our home how we want it considering the location that is right for us, the space for specific purposes that we need and the carbon footprint both in construction and day to day use.

Fulfilling that dream starts here, although the dream actually had its seeds laid years back. As a thirteen years old boy I wanted to be an architect, at fifteen I was trying to build solar chargers and a small scale windmill at my parents home. Both architecture and renewable energy have fascinated me for years. What better way to put that passion to good use?

Just to finish off this first, of hopefully many, posts a few quotes that have stuck with me and seem quite apt for this project:

“Be the change you want to see in the World”.

“Every time you open your wallet is a vote for the type of world you want to live in”.

(Sorry, no citation, as I can’t remember who said those).