Here Thee, Here thee, ancient souls…
I saw a video the other day by one of my ultimate favourite Designers Daan Roosegarde who build a Van Gogh Solar powered path & Glowing Lines Smart Highway in the Netherlands. I got deeply inspired by something he said in the video, and since then its opened up a whole new world of design ideas that have been vividly incubating in my mind.
By placing something of the future, you start to reconnect in a way. It is too easy to say the future is good and past is bad. Or Lets start over. That’s impossible in the world we live in today. It’s all about finding connections. Between the new and the old. Between history and future. Between pragmatism and poetry. Between fantasy and an excel sheet. Taking something from the past, updating it, building it. Its where history and the future meet.
When you think circular, the ability to make these types of things are actually happening. I believe in a new world, we should never stop. You should be this voluntary prisoner of your own imagination. The landscape is our collective conscious and I believe if we connect the world of innovation & new technology. The role of creativity and arts is super important and theres a whole new world to be explored. and now we need to work with this, and push it to the next level. †– Daan Roosegard
Upon hearing these words, I immediately had a vision of taking old ancient church structure and turning it in to a Modern day Organic Architecture, Green Eco design LIVING model. Solar powered, rebuild with recycled and reclaimed materials, with libraries, sustainable & more truth relevant spiritual learning & classes. Lush organic gardens, healthy delicious organic homemade food, a place for local community and visitors worldwide to share intimate & sacred time off the grid, inside & outside, right here in our home town of Montreal.
There is a catch though. Moving a Church is not cheap. I found a church the other day that was up for sale in New Brunswick that we being sold for 1$! Yes you heard me correctly, 1 $. With the popularity of church decreasing, and land developers putting their hands everywhere, my suspicion is that more and more churches run the risk of being demolished because of the heavy price tag of moving them.
Why demolish such structures that inhabited millions of peoples heartfelt prayers & dreams, why not save it or more so put it to a more evolved use and cause.
So here I am with another one of my wild crazy ideas that I have my heart set to bring to the world. Not sure exactly how I will yet, ideas have a way of developing and taking on new shapes and forms as they evolve. If anyone connects to this idea or project and would like to help me realize it in Montreal, please be in touch with me Shoshana at info@backtoeden.ca
Below are a few Eco Designed Church Initiatives that are unfolding around the world today. Lets make History and the Present, Truthful connected Lovers !
Krill Architecture recently unveiled plans for a beautiful circular wooden church for Valer, Norway. The competition entry proposes to renovate the town’s old church ruins with an open ring-shaped building that is powered by solar panels. The interior of the ring holds a verdant patio, and the structure would be lifted on one side, giving people the opportunity to come in without crossing a threshold.
Thai Temple Built From One Million Recycled Bottles
If the higher being that the Wat Pa Maha Chedio Kaew temple prays to is into recycling, we think they’ve found a stairway to heaven, and it’s made of bottles – millions of them! The temple, which sits in Thailand’s Sisaket province, about 370 miles northeast of Bangkok is made of more than a million used glass bottles. The bottles are used throughout the building from the crematorium, the surrounding shelters, and even in the toilets!
We were both surprised and impressed when Vatican City installed 2,400 photovoltaic solar panels on the 5,000 square meter roof of one of their main halls. The 1.2 million euro ($1.6 million) system went live just hours before Pope Benedict held what was called the first ecological general audience in the Vatican.
Ancient Church Turned Modern Bookstore
Okay, so this isn’t actually a church – but it used to be! Instead of being torn down, this lovely old Dominican church in Maastricht was renovated into a “new†bookstore. What a great example of adaptive re-use that turns a rich historic building into a different kind of house of knowledge.
Elderly Madrid Man Builds Incredible Spanish Cathedral Entirely From Trash
This extraordinary cathedral made from salvaged materials has steadily risen over the past 50 years in a quiet Madrid neighborhood. Justo Martinez (who goes by Don Justo) has been working on the massive undertaking nearly single-handedly ever since he had to leave an order of monks due to illness. After recovering, he dedicated his life to building a church using his own money, on his own land. The massive undertaking is built almost entirely from local materials that he is able to salvage, and now topped out at 131 feet the cathedral just needs a few finishing touches — like a roof, some windows and permits.
Reuse, Repurpose, Relove!
