Building bill-free homes – this can be a great way of creating a life outside the financial system for people who have access to land. Cob houses, stone houses, earth bag houses and in some areas also wooden houses can be built literally from materials provided by nature in front of the door step. If additional items are needed these may be available through non-monetary exchanges, or by using waste materials left behind by other projects, or a local businesses. For example in Canada some people build their wood stoves from old oil drums which had been discarded all over the tundra. When living in Nova Scotia I built a shed from wooden pallets on which local businesses received there products. These pallets were often in new condition and would otherwise have been burned. Exchanges within the local community can be a wonderful way to form lasting bonds with people and to create mutually nourishing trades which do not require any money.

Wild camping, re-settling abandoned houses/villages and squatting – obviously inexpensive forms of shelter. Some people flourish in that type of lifestyle and are pushing forward much needed pioneer work around new ways of land management and community structures, but as with everything, it has to be right for you and in integrity with the underlying local cultural, natural tapestry of the region.

Wild camping can be an incredible experience – I have done it a lot, in various countries. I love choosing stunning nature places, waking up the next morning by a beautiful river, or lake, or in the forest, or on a mountain overlooking an ocean bay. Make sure your equipment is functional and suits the local weather conditions. While travelling, I have also arrived in new places – including cities – in the dark, tired, and then set out to search for a place to pitch my tent that would simply be safe for the night. So far it always worked out but this kind of travel (I was also hitchhiking) implies a lot of spontaneity, uncertainty and the dealing with different and ever-changing energies and frequencies. It can feel a bit hard emotionally and physically after a while. For me it was and is a big part of refusing to go along with basic human rights such as water, shelter and food being tied into the monetary system and hence available only to those who can afford them.

Squatting and the re-settling of abandoned houses or entire villages can be powerfully connected with projects and campaigns that take a stand towards securing various human and civil rights. An example is the ZAD (Zone à Défendre / Zone to Defend) of Notre Dame de Landes near Nantes in France – a wetland and farmland that was supposed to be turned into an airport; the defense was successful and was recently summarised and taken deeper in the book ‘We are ‘Nature’ defending itself: Entangling art, activism & autonomous zones’. 

I have visited an occupied house/squat while travelling Spain. It was a deep experience. The community comprised several buildings and multiple caravans. My impression was that the young people who live there take good care of the place and have a genuine interest in forging new ways of managing land and living together. Some had necessary legal knowledge, others had building skills. The villagers had no issue with the squatters and it seemed to be a win-win situation such that houses which would otherwise be empty were used and maintained while young people, most of them artists, had a place to stay which did not require a lot of money. However, police interferes continuously. The occupants of one of the houses had already been forced to leave. The house was then locked and has been vacant ever since. The inhabitants of another house had just received a letter saying that they had to move out within two weeks, and the people I was staying with knew that they may receive such a letter any day. Here are young enthusiasts who have put a lot of effort into doing things differently, yet with integrity. Why is there no room for this way of living? When will more people recognise the coercion we are subject to if we go along with institutional systems – when do we begin to really stand up?

Questions such as “How do we want to deal with land?” are posing themselves in many communities and we need pioneers who carve out models, legally and practically. When did land become tied into the financial system? Have we been asked for consent? How do we want our communities to function? These questions urgently need to be addressed. Esp. in Spain many villages and small towns have been abandoned in the past and are now being re-settled. All kinds of community structures are formed and experimented with in the scope of that – a very, very fertile soil for pioneer work which may fit well with reducing dependency on money and banking.

Sharing homes – this can greatly reduce costs and – like any form of community – can be structured in myriad ways with lots of social interaction and joined decision-making, or clearly carved out individual spaces where people share a piece of land, a house, or an apartment but each have their own lives. I feel that many people have preconceived ideas about shared living – a certain picture in their head that clearly defines what community looks like. This can be very limiting and may lead to the disregard of great opportunities for true exchange, collaboration and sharing. The new frequencies are not tied to any type of box. Community can be anything we want it to be. The most important thing is to be clear about what you do and do not want and to communicate that at the right time, typically before joining, or in case of a newly developing community at the time when the overall structure is discussed.

More – also check out the ‘house-sitting’ paragraph in the ‘Travel’ section further down.