Yesterday I toured the Crooked Forest Institute‘s land that they recently acquired in the Mimbres Valley in Southern New Mexico via a $200,000 grant . A group of more than a dozen of us who already had some association with the Institute were invited to inspect the 50+ acre property and make suggestions about ways that it might be developed.
Holly Noonan, the founder of the Institute, is explaining some of what is envisioned as illustrated on the map below.
The mission of the Crooked Forest Institute is: We design, build and propagate resiliency neighborhoods for low-income and sensitive people in a way that leads to home ownership, food sovereignty, vibrant health and liberation from environmental and economic injustice.
So this property would serve as (1) a location for establishing a local Compressed Earth Block (CEB) manufacturing operation to create bricks from clean, local soil. (2) An education campus, with a prototype village on ten acres, with ten adobe homes, plus shared kitchen, bathroom, shop and garden. People would be trained to build Adobe structures with clean energy and smart water management. (3) A biodynamic farm with regenerative agriculture practices to grow enough food to share and teaching others how to do the same. (4) A place with clean work spaces and opportunities for collaborative entrepreneurship and business incubator focused on sustainable businesses who are growing and reinventing our common future.
It is a grand vision, and one that I fully support. I offer my expertise regarding sustainable architecture as an advisor to their board.