Long Term Plan

The SAC has now successfully purchased a piece of land close to the village center but far enough away that the songs of birds and monkeys echo through this beautiful landscape.  Here we plan to build a Studio, Kitchens, accommodation, compost toilets, solar energy systems meditation temple, gardens and much more.

This land is abundant in natural building materials rocks, adobe earth and palma.  We have a clean supply of drinking water that flows directly from the rocks, a natural spring, Thank you Mother Earth.

The SAC Eco village will be the only Ecological living Artist retreat in Peru and the only Artist studio in Tarapoto.  The structure of all buildings will be designed to use ecologically friendly materials and renewable energy sources.

Ecological living  

Natural building

The houses and other structures will be designed to use ecologically friendly materials and renewable energy sources. Proper siting of buildings will reduce the impact of construction on local plants and animals. For social harmony, balance between public and private space is crucial.

Local and Traditional Techniques

These construction methods have been used for centuries. They do not require commercially processed materials or a skilled labour force. Unskilled local labour can satisfactorily construct a house using these construction methods:  

The Biosand Water Filter Project

DESEA is constructing “biosand” water filters promoted by the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology. The system involves filtering of water within a one-metre tall, free-standing concrete container of sand, a biologically-active layer at the sand surface, and lower, drainage layers of gravel. A household filter can provide up to 20-40 litres/hour.

Biosand filters are simple to operate, require minimal maintenance, and never need replacement.  As a local organization DESEA is available to provide households with on-going instruction in filter use and water storage practices as well as to monitor the installations to assure that water quality and operating techniques remain satisfactory. 

Based on in-house and independent studies, CAWST reports that biosand filters are able to remove 95-99% of bacteria; 80-90% of viruses; and 99.99% of parasites (including Giardia, Cryptosporidium, other protozoa, and helminths).

They are looking for donations of $90- £45 which provides permanent water treatment for an Andean family.  This company helps to educate the people and keep them healthy; it has spread to remote Villages all around Peru.  Hopefully the project will be joining us in the Jungle.  We have one of these filters and they are magic!

www.deseaperu.org

Natural energy

The use of more natural and renewable energy sources are necessary in order to take the burden off our current dependency on fossil fuels. The high levels of fossil fuels we burn each and every day are contributing to climate change and the polluting of the air and surrounding environments.

Renewable energy is sustainable as it is obtained from sources that are inexhaustible (unlike fossil fuels). Renewable energy sources include wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydro, all of which occur naturally on our planet and will never run out.

Renewable energy is clean energy; it is non-polluting. It does not emit any greenhouse gases or toxic waste in the process of producing electricity. It is a sustainable energy source which can be relied on for the long-term future. Renewable energy is cost-effective and efficient.  

Solar power

Is the cleanest, greenest and most viable form of renewable energy available. The availability and wide use of solar power shows exactly how versatile it is as a source of energy.

Bio Dynamics -Growing and raising food.

In our growing method of cultivation the influence of the moon, planets and stars on plant growth plays a central role.

In this method of cultivation, in addition to the compost preparations, the cow-pat pit horn manure and horn silica preparations are also of decisive importance. This preparation is sprayed on the soil just before sowing. It promotes better root growth and thus creates the right conditions for healthy, strong plant growth.  

Pisac Art Center- Making the Cow-Pat preperations.

Adobe

Mud brick or sun dried brick, stands for blocks, or bricks, in plain earth, sun dried after they have been given shape, mostly by hand, by means of suitable moulds in which a plastic mixture of clay, sand and straw is compressed into, and then traditionally installed.

Quincha

A technique in which the earth is utilized as a secondary filling element. The mixture, to which straw – or plaster – cement/lime are sometimes added to, is

useful in covering up a structure, in another material, made up of wooden supporting elements and by a plugging feature in vertical or horizontal rushes fixed to such a structure and united to one another. The earth here fulfills the function of customary plaster, often

featuring laying in several layers. Round or squared wood is utilized indistinctly, in order to create the supporting external frame which is then plugged with matting of rushes joined to one another by means of nails, iron wire, cord, vegetable fiber which guarantee, on drying, a more secure grip.

Composting Toilets

A composting toilet is any system that converts human waste into an organic compost and usable soil, through the natural breakdown of organic matter into its essential minerals

The art center intends to use one of two types of composting toilets;

Waterless Composting is a system made up of a wood cabinet with a comfortable toilet seat and tight fitting lid, below which is a 20-gallon holding tank. Adjacent to the toilet is a bucket or hinged compartment containing a mixture of saw dust, shredded leaves and compost. This is the cover material that is put into the barrel after use to soak up fluids, leaving no odors and a slightly earthy smell. When the toilet barrel is ¾ full (about 1 month for a single person) the whole barrel is removed from the cabinet to an outside composting system for further decomposition. The toilet barrel also has a drain in which liquids can flow to an outside composting chamber or other greenfilter water treatment system (below). The bathroom and toilet cabinet can be fashionably designed and decorated etc. to make it even more pleasant.

The Flush Composting system is a traditional toilet with a flush handle, except that the drainpipes empty into an enclosed compostfilter bin built adjacent to the house or building. This compostfilter bin is made up of two compartments that are watertight and can be opened at the top or front for maintenance. Each compartment is partially filled with compost, leaves, woodchips and earthworms. The toilet drainpipe empties into one of the bins where all the solid waste and toilet paper becomes a part of the composting system and the fluid drains out at the bottom into pipes and into another greenfilter wastewater system. When one bin is full, the second one is used and the other allowed to fully decompose and be used as compost on the garden and non-edible plants.

Wastewater System

To avoid using a standard septic system that releases high levels of concentrated nitrogen into the ground water supply and nearest rivers, the art center will incorporate an ecological based wastewater management system that allows for greywater (showers, sinks, toilets etc) to be purified and reused. One of two systems will be used:

A greefilter system is one composed of a greywater pipe that runs downhill from the house or building into a shallow depression filled with woodchips, leaves and topsoil, and above planted with sewage treatment plants – plants that take up nitrogen, other useful nutrients found in greywater and breakdown undesirable substances. Then purified water will naturally seep deeper back into the ground water supply. Plants from the area will naturally grow around this depression and make it a pleasant looking planted area all year long. The other system is a closed-water treatment system often called an Eco-machine. In this system the greywater pipes will run into a series of tanks or a pond filled with various plants, fish, bacteria and other organisms that naturally breakdown toxins and use nutrients found in our wastewater. The purified water can then be pumped back up to the buildings to be reused in sinks, toilets and showers or allowed to drain into the river without polluting it.