What is Eliopoli?
The Eliopoli Project wants to create an innovative global village in Nova Scotia, Canada. An ecovillage is a model that transforms human settlements into a full-featured sustainable community, harmlessly suited to the natural environment. Eliopoli is a different way of conceiving the ecovillage concept. It integrates environmental sustainability, education, social responsibility sharing, participation, decisional and alternative technology with a pragmatic approach that comprehends the development of economical and business activities.
Eliopoli aimes to create wellness and prosperity to its stakeholders, and represents a cutting edge experiment for a new holistic lifestyle.
What is your primary focus?
A holistic lifestyle.
Is your community open to visitors?
Yes, during the summer.
What should I do if I would like to visit your community?
Please contact us by email.
What decision making method does your community primarily use?
A mix of majority rule and community leader decision.
To what extent do members of your community share their income?
A partial income sharing.
Earth Sheltered Home
-Were you able to find good contractors to do the shotcrete work?
We had a contractor for the shotcrete coming from New Brunswick . I can pass the dato to you.
Where there any hold ups/unforeseen delays/higher than budgeted costs that could be avoided in the future?
Yes! many additional costs where related to:
1. inexperience: while Formworks Building gave to us useful information, this was on the phone. Figuring out how to do things cost very much time that would be possible to save in a second project.
2. adaptation of the concept to Nova Scotia rules and by laws: I discovered that Canada (and Nova Scotia) is very closed to innovation. Everything MUST be Canadian certified. For example the waterproof system was not.
3. price of materials:FWB is based in the US. Materials that is widely available le there is hard, if not impossible to find here.
What percentage of the work did you contract out and what percentage did you do yourself?
60% was made by contractors, 40% by our self. Again Canadian regulations push in this direction. In general a FWB home is different in the shell, the rest is a standard construction, a part the fact that is not a square.
Do you know your cost/sq ft?
this is depending how you calculate this. including the system to improve the efficiency we are to 130 $ /sq ft. Without around 110 $. For exmple we do have a R 40 insulation factor on the front walls, this is double so much as required by the standard.
Do you notice decreased heating/cooling costs?
Yes! During the winter the home never froze inside, also being completely open (no windows, no walls.
Now given the dimension of 300 Sq Mt, we heat it with a small wood oven. see http://eliopoli.org/2012/05/working-inside-2/
Did you add any unique systems or features to boost efficiency or decrease environmental impacts?
yes. We have R 40 insulation on the walls, all the energy we use is produced with renewable sources: we cock using wood, solar hot water, etc.
One thing that I regret is that I discovered too late the
do you enjoy the house and the ‘feel’ of living inside of it?
I love it! inside is very silent, during a storm you feel protected like in no other construction. Our main concern was the light: our home is plenty of it all the day. Could be even better facing south (we face east).