This is a CTP of initiative: Ecovillage Schloss Tempelhof (Germany)
From the beginning the initiative intended to grow into a community with about 200-300 residents. The major decision to realize this plan was made when buying the 32ha land including a building complex of an entire village. It has provided the spatial infrastructure due to the size and building permission of the Tempelhof site. Since then Schloss Tempelhof experienced an extraordinarily fast growth in terms of residential members in the first years. Starting on site with 20 members in 2010, they grew to 120 residents (80 members of the co-operative plus 40 children) in just two years.
The actual critical turning point concerning growth occurred much later, in summer 2014 caused by mainly three dynamics:
Tempelhof had installed a regulation and limitation for newcomers before. Nevertheless, these events have axed the plan of a long-term, continuous growth. Several planned and uncoordinated reactions have emerged in the following time.
Through its professional planning and successful community building Tempelhof has grown into a vibrant ecovillage project very fast which has attracted media (Kunze/Avelino 2015). Since its beginnings the initiative has been communicated in different media. Rather than being a niche and drop-out-of-society-project Schloss Tempelhof considers itself to be a community ‘grown out of the middle of society’. According to the interviewees Tempelhof has met major needs of ‘normal people’ by offering a real-life-option. It was established by middle-aged and middle-class people and is a popular initiative amongst these circles.
2008 Long-term development of demographical change, financial crises, and symptoms of the ‘loss of community’ in individualised societies, namely the raise of burn out, unemployment and increasing divorce rates.
In the beginning it was a risk to buy the 32ha land including a building complex of an entire village in 2010 with only 20 members. But the project was growing very fast.
Since the end of 2013 the last renovated residential space was rented out. Mobile homes are built.
Later in 2013 the community decided to reduce the number of newcomers to 10 per year while joining of people of age 50+ is reduced and young people are still welcome. Being directly affected by an increasingly aging population in Germany – 60% of the joining requests to Schloss Tempelhof are from people aged 60plus.
Since Tempelhof ecovillage has actively started on site, the media interest has risen. The documentary on Schloss Tempelhof in West state TV on Dcember, 19th 2013 by famous Anke Engelke in the TV series ‘Something like fortune’ caused 20.000 homepage visits on the day after. It is followed by a wave of joining requests which overshot the capacities of Schloss Tempelhof in terms of living space and social integration.
In Spring 2014 the realisation of a new residential house was cancelled. 2015 expansion to neighbouring villages: Linde-Hotel in Waldtann is bought by associates;
2015/6 expansion to neighbouring villages: ‘Villa Tempelblick a house with 10 appartments in Lustenau is bought by associates
2015: A new experimental building law of the state of Baden-Württemberg made the project of an ‘Earthship’ possible, a recycling building concept from the US. The building is a living room plus sanitary facilities and guest room for about 20 people, surrounded by 14 mobile homes used as private living space. (Earthship Tempelhof.)
The internal opinions in Tempelhof are divided about the speed and number of growth. Over the years the members discovered different capacities and personal needs for community life. While some were passionate about the growing ecovillage, others felt overwhelmed and wanted to slow down the integration process of new people. They argued for a socially integrated growth for the sake of the stability of the community values. This conflict inside the community concretely appeared when the realisation of the new residential house failed.
The initiative had planned to grow since its beginning when buying the large site. The physical space for living could more or less be estimated and anticipated. They had also prepared the governance structures, the financial ownership and the legal status of the initiative for growing into a large ecovillage.
Nevertheless, it was hardly possible to predict the social dynamics in the initiative. The growing number of people did not only bring a greater richness in skills and engagement for the initiative but also a greater chaos, namely a growing number of conflicts, misunderstandings and loss of control.
The initiative had learnt on several levels:
On the internal social level, the community has understood that it needs an integrated growth and a regulation of growing numbers per year.
In terms of internal governance, growing was dealt with in a well organised way. When passing one hundred members the community started to differentiate into smaller groups. Members are looking for their personal reference group which some found in the work departments. On the level of governance, it required setting up more formal structures for internal governance, such as the village plenary, the so called coordination circle, working groups, and the need-based income for members working for the community (Kunze/Avelino 2015).
On the social level, Tempelhof had made a crucial and critical decision to exclude newcomers over the age of 60. Schloss Tempelhof members proceed with their learning on a level of multiplication. They have turned the tables by educating elders how to establish an ecovillage themselves by hosting courses in their seminar centre.
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