Research and Experimentation
Research and experimentation help us to understand life
Ecological construction and technologies for low-impact
One of the core intentions of Damanhur's founders was the create a model community for a practical, sustainability-based lifestyle. Falco Tarassaco used to say that Damanhur is a school where everyone - from birth to age 100 - is a student every day. It is a learning environment where we study and experiment together, respect each other's viewpoints, and test every thesis and hypothesis. More experienced students teach and learn from the younger ones, and common findings are exchanged with those of many others from around the world.
Today, there are abundant opportunities for exploring new eco-technologies-from uniquely Damanhurian research, such as the use of Selfs in organic agriculture, to those carried out by Damanhur communities that investigate living with a low environmental impact through constructed wetlands for water treatment, green building, biomass heaters, energy production, energy savings and much more.
Our homes are also part of the experiment
For example, the community of Aval was designed and built by Damanhurian professionals as a model of a "passive house," where we live, work and raise children every day, according to a criteria that combines technology, respect for the environmental and the well-being of those who live there.
All of the residences in the Tentyris area have come about experimentally by "inventing" systems not only to retrofit old houses, but to bring in water, electricity and sanitation services without waiting for the local municipality to do it for us.
Other examples of Damanhurian research that has been applied to environmental conservation are the acres of forest land converted from a thicket of small trees to taller ones, and the biodiversity reintroduced after studies on the flora of the groundcover, and many experiments in organic agriculture and permaculture.
