Italy, San Donato Milanese, Milan
By: Cooperativa Sociale Solidarietà è Progresso, Municipalità di San Donato Milanese
http://www.comune.sandonatomilanese.mi.it

A flexible, customised professional day nursery for small groups of infants, at a reasonable price, and with a socialising environment

Solution
The service is run for the municipality of San Donato Milanese by a cooperative of 80 members started in 1999 to organise services for infants, the disabled and the. It offers professional nursery care to small groups of two or three children under three years old. Children are assigned to a childminder, who looks after them in her own home. The carers look after and educate the children, and take them also to other activities for infants organised by the local authority to help in the baby’s social development. The service is focused on two main concepts: having a maximum of three children per house, making it easier for the childminder to take them out on her own, and that the childminders should be well-trained.The scheme offers new job opportunities, especially for immigrants, and a new, flexible and personalised kind of childcare. The parents have to drop off and pick up the baby at the carer’s house and provide the baby’s food.
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The Netherlands, Eindhoven
By: Aquarius Association

People over 55 live in a resource-sharing community suited to their diverse needs and lifestyles

Solution
Aquarius is a social community of about 45 older people living together, helping each other when needed. They want to grow old together. They each have a private home and garden, but also use a communal space and large communal garden. The inhabitants help each other out as much as possible. A committee organises the community, and has the task of vetting potential new members, who can apply between ages 55 and 65 (to make sure there are is always a mix of younger and older residents). Aquarius is a community where elderly people spend their days in an active social active environment.
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The Netherlands, Utrecht
By: Nieuw Utrecht Association

A puiblic green makes a neighbourhood more beautiful and welcoming.

Solution
Loan Gardens is a public green, which as been turned into a garden by the residents. There are a lot of public green spaces in Overvecht, and residents wanted to use this particular area to give the neighbourhood more identity. Residents who want to garden there first ask permission first of the ‘De Bram’ community centre, which also provides all the information they need, as does the municipal housing corporation, Overvecht. When permission is granted residents receive a management contract, and sometimes some funding, which makes then the owners of the public space they applied for and they can start gardening. The association provides advice, gardening courses and plants for the inhabitants, and the district office and students of nearby Wellant College help with planting.
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Finland, Helsinki
By: Oranssi
www.oranssi.net

How young people live independently, yet communally.

Solution
Oranssi renovates houses for young people looking for a more communal way of living. Inhabitants participate in the renovation from the beginning, and maintain the houses afterwards. Neighbours know each other and are active in taking care of communal maintenance, such as garden work, snow ploughing, etc. Oranssi flats are as cheap as the cheapest council flats (for which there are long queues), and residents are allowed to renovate their flat as they wish and to participate in their house community, with its socialising as well as repair and maintenance work. Members, who must be under 24, need to take responsibility for the work involved and to be prepared for a more communal way of living. Whenever a vacancy arises, people can apply to the board, and are chosen by interview. The original members have become valued experts in traditional wooden house repair techniques, which they pass on to new residents. Unemployed young people can also get temporary work placements, and young carpenters can do their practical training there.
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The Netherlands, The Hague
By: The International Institute for the Urban Environment (IIUE), NV Woningbeheer and the department of Nature an Environmental Education of the City of The Hague
www.urban.nl

Inhabitants improve living conditionms in their village environment

Solution
Residents have taken over responsibility from the local authority for certain maintenance tasks for their neighbourhood. A residents’ association decides, with the local authority, what work needs doing, then organises it among local residents. Although the local authority pays for the work, responsibility is devolved to the residents’ association. The local authority and environmental organisations give the residents practical advice, and environmental awareness.
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France, Paris
By : Association Quartier Saint Bernard AQSB
www.qsb11.org

Residents transform an abandoned plot into a shared neighbourhood garden.

Solution
This run-down eyesore was transformed into a dynamic, locally run community garden, meeting and events space. The 270 square metre shared garden is a platform for a multitude of activities; it inspires interaction between generations and involvement with local schools. The Jardin Nomade offers a free and open space where locals of all age groups can meet and have fun. A monthly meeting is held by the Association du Quartier Saint Bernard (AQSB) to exchange information, organise events and deal with any problems. Claudine Raillard, a professional gardener, performs the general management and supervision of the garden, draws up contracts, distributes individual garden plots, gives gardening advice and programmes activities, undertakes environmental research (such as water collection) and organised the brick architecture (hut) project. The AQSB organises monthly meetings, within and beyond the neighbourhood by holding social events, such as soup parties, making sure that something is always happening in and around the garden.
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The Netherlands, Utrecht
By: De Kersentuin residents association
www.kersentuin.nl

A community creates the conditions for environmentally friendly living.

Solution
De Kersentuin is an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable community in the city of Utrecht, founded and developed by the inhabitants themselves. The residents made a plan for this sustainable neighbourhood, bargained with the city, and contacted architects to help them. In a matter of years, a neighbourhood of 94 buildings was created; it benefits from shared facilities, solar power systems, special thermal isolation, a balanced ventilation system, the possibility to extend houses as families get bigger, lots of green in the neighbourhood, a shared garden, neighbourhood-help and car-sharing. Its residents are very self-sufficient, and arrange new initiatives – such as like hand crafts, a carrier cycle, carshare, etc - from which both inhabitants and the rest of the town now benefit.
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Belgium

Cas, innovation

Une vingtaine de familles harmonisent leurs maisons individuelles sur et autour d’un espace vert commun et partagé.

Fonctionnement

La Placette est une formule équilibrée entre les notions de foyer individuel et foyer communautaire. Les habitants sont liés par le concept activé ensemble. Ils forment un comité de gestion qui s’appuie sur des règles établies dès le départ et où chacun a sa place. Une réunion a lieu une fois par mois : relevé des problèmes, programmation des tâches; les rôles changent tous les ans. Ils procèdent par vote à l’unanimité, veto compris.
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Denmark

The place that gives the possibilities you do not have at home
It is possible to use the café for your dinner, together with all the workshops.
In the workshops can both be used for creative projects but also for making more functional things to your home.

Forstrup-Jutland, Denmark

More and more, people are looking for way to get out of the capitalist system, returning to nature and a more primitive way of life. Even though they cannot get away completely, they have a different way of life, a personal choice, that should be analyzed. These observations were all made during my trip to the camp, from my own experience.
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Denmark

What is the question?
How do mental disabled people get a job where they feel needed?
Where do people with less financial means have the possibility to go out for dinner and music.
Where do lonesome people go to find a friend or just being together with other if they do not fell like they belong in this society?
If you do not have financial possibilities or facilities at home, where can you go to make clothes of your own, make pottery, draw after models, use wood shop facilities and so on?
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Sjælland, Denmark
www.mormorordningen.dk

Sick children can be a reoccurring problem for many parents who work. At Sjælland (DK) there are several initiatives to solve this problem. “Rent a grandparent” is a concept developed to offer contact between working parents and elderly who likes to spend time with children. For a small fee, a “grandparent” will happily come and take good care of your sick child.
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Italy, Milan
By: Associazione Megliomilano and Provincia di Milano
www.meglio.milano.it

Intergenerational house sharing helps students find cheap, family-style accommodation, while giving lonely, but independent, elders help, companionship and financial support.

Solution
Megliomilano realised that independent elderly people could provide young students with low-cost accommodation in exchange for a little household help. A campaign generated a lot of offers from elderly people who had at least one room free in their house; manmy students also submitted requests. A psychologist was employed to visit the houses, interview the students and elderly people, and match the two together. Megliomilano keeps track of everybody involved through weekly feedback, gives both parties free legal assistance and support from a psychologist support, and organises monthly meetings with all users of the service.
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The Netherlands, Hoogeveen
By: Municipality of Hoogeveen and Association ‘Plaatselijk Belang’ (Local Interest)
http://members.lycos.nl/vandersleen/index.html

Villagers improve their living circumstances and the health of local social networks

Solution
The aim of the project was to improve living conditions in the village. As a result of consultation among the villagers, and the formation of a committee, the village became a nicer and better-organised place to live. Eighty per cent of the residents participated in a survey, conducted by the inhabitants themselves, to describe assets and suggest improvements. The results of this survey fed into the creation of a consultation group was started, and workgroups that discuss various problems and came up with solutions. A ‘village development plan’ was subsequently established as the basis of ongoing collaborative projects. In principle, all inhabitants (ca. 1300) are now involved in planning and maintenance work.
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Estonia, Tallinn
By: Mööblikom
www.mooblikom.com

Old furniture is given a new lease of life

Solution
Mööblikom is a shop where people bring their old furniture to be given a new look and find a new owner. The shop sells both bespoke and ready-made furniture, all made from pieces that would otherwise have been thrown away, and also repairs furniture. The pieces are mostly from the 1960s or before. The main motivation for the founders is environmentalism, but they also make a small profit.
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Poland, Zawoja Przyslop
By: Association for Sustainable Development ‘Przyslop’
www.przyslop.zawoja.pl

A small rural community is revitalised.

Solution
Pupils, parents and teachers of the Number 4 Elementary School in Przyslop decided to expand it into a tourist information and environmental education centre to prevent its closure. It now includes an environmental education centre whose activities include organising courses and ecological education events. The project makes available a variety of existing but previously separate resources: products by local craftspeople, natural riches, cultural monuments, the Amber Trail route and the monastery wind power-station. Now, products are easily accessible, as they are sold in a special shop, the Sklepik pod Magurka. Tourists walking the Amber Trail can also visit newly marked-out paths (the Educational Trail and the Trail of Local Chapels) stay the night in one of the agro-tourist hostels, and buy souvenirs from one of the ecological shops. The Association for Sustainable Development, which has its headquarters in the school, comprises people who most actively want to solve the problems in their area, and work to improve quality of life while respecting the local cultural and natural heritage – it has built a water-pump and household compost heaps, created a regional council, published a mini-dictionary of Babiogórska slang, built educational trails and organised a festival.
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The Netherlands, various locations
By: DLVGroen&Ruimte
www.milieuvriendelijktuinieren.nl

Amateur gardeners learn to reduce the use of herbicides while keeping their garden healthy

Solution
Environmentally friendly gardening maintains the garden the way nature would do, by, for example, using dead plants as nutrition, and destroying diseases by using the right bugs. The website www.milieuvriendelijktuinieren.nl and the organisation VELT (Vereniging voor Ecologisch Leef- en Teeltwijze) encourage environmentally friendly gardening, by providing information, publishing newsletters and brochures, and maintains a knowledge bank. VELT is a membership organisation, organises meetings, and has an example garden which the members maintain collectively. Amateur gardeners also visit each other now and then to see their gardens and exchange knowledge.
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Estonia, Tallinn
By: Materjalid.net
http://materjalid.net

How valuable used construction materials and components are re-used.

Solution
This project teaches people about old and used materials so that they can be re-used, enriching the new environment. It collects, removes, stocks and transports valuable used building and construction elements, ranging from door handles and postbox labels to bricks, stairways and roof details. Materjilad finds out about potential reclaimable materials from construction or real estate companies, who are demolishing old buildings to develop new projects, or members of the public interested in a sustainable lifestyle. Project manager Valdur Lillemets organises the transportation and stocking of materials and posts information about new findings on the website. The organisation both sells the elements, via the website or from the stock area, and runs courses and workshops about sustainable renovation. People are taught to lengthen the lifespan of objects that have served us well rather than throw them away.
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United Kingdom, Findhorn, Scotland
By: Findhorn Foundation
www.ecovillagefindhorn.com

A sustainable community, harmlessly integrated into the natural environment.

Solution
Findhorn Eco Village combines local organic food production, ecological building, energy systems, and cooperative, social economies to create a fully sustainable community: it is an ecologically respectful built environment, providing a good example to local rural communities. It provides a sustainable way of life for residents, demonstrates co-creation with nature, and supplies a place to educate in living sustainability. The Findhorn Community, which began in 1962 in a caravan park in northeast Scotland, is known internationally for its experiments with new models of holistic and sustainable living. Cooperation and co-creation with nature have always been tenets of the community’s work, ever since it became famous in the late 1960s for its remarkable and beautiful gardens grown in adverse conditions on the sand dunes of the Findhorn peninsula.
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United Kingdom, KInghorn Loch Fife
By: Michael Reynolds, Sustainable Communities Initiatives
www.sci-scotland.org.uk/earthship.html

People learn to build their own homes and live in eco-efficient, natural buildings.

Solution
Earthship houses offer people the opportunity to build their own homes and make a conscious decision to live lightly on the earth. Each home is a passive solar building, made from natural and recycled materials, is powered by renewable energy, such as wind, water and solar power, catches its own water supply from rainwater, and treats and contains its own sewage in planter beds. It is a concept and can be adapted for any climate worldwide.
The purpose of Earthship is to inform people of the simple ways in which they can reduce their impact on the environment. The construction of Earthship houses (reclaimed tyres filled with compacted earth, with a glazed south-facing wall) allows thermal mass, maximum heat-retention and insulation. This is particularly appropriate for the Scottish climate, the wettest climate in which an Earthship has been built. The project is being monitored to assess the feasibility of using reclaimed tyres as a building material the construction of mainstream housing.
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