The driving premise behind the Light Living Laboratory is that we, humanity, have lost sight of the fact that we are part of the ecological system of this planet and do not and cannot exist outside it. Once we accept this simple idea all else begins to fall into place and encourages us to learn from nature, such as biomimicry now attempts. This inevitably requires us to adjust our behaviour and actions. The Laboratory is about finding out how to adjust and to develop new models of living.
As we are continuing to discover – there is no waste in nature; no built in obsolescence; no expectation of continuous growth; and no systemic injustice. Nature shows how unnatural such drivers are and how wrong our society, our institutions, our civilisation have got it. The planet is groaning under the effect of these misconceptions. They will be exacerbated if allowed to continue, particularly in the light of the major population growth projected.
The Light Living Laboratory is specifically designed to accommodate individuals and families for temporary and permanent residency. They will include scientists, technicians, experts and deep thinkers who will work together in synthesizing relevant ideas and practices from all over the world into new models of living lightly and in harmony with nature. Models will be live-tested, improved and made freely available.
Light living is not about stepping back in time but is about adopting appropriate technologies, and using renewable resources, within the framework of re-defined economic principles, principles that are based on today’s reality rather than on yesteryears’ hypotheses. Models for living developed at the Light Living Laboratory are intended to be adaptable, scalable and transferable.
The disciplines Ecology and Economics share a common root from the Greek word ‘oikos’ meaning household, home, or place to live. Ecology looks at how organisms, humans included, interact with their environment within an eco-system; whereas economics seeks to define the rules of the good housekeeping. Economics as presently applied is our big problem and threatens to cost us the earth. Getting to understand and adjust just these 2 disciplines alone would represent a giant leap for humankind. The Light Living Laboratory will address these and so much more.
A truly useful model of light living requires an examination of all aspects of being a human and a deep understanding of the interconnectedness and interdependency of everything. The Light Living Laboratory is guided by its ‘star of integration’ (enclosed), which is designed to help visualize the key areas that need to be addressed as we develop a new, wholeness-based way of being, living and interacting.
Star of Integration
To illustrate the whole-picture approach to planning and modelling applied in the realisation of the Light Living Laboratory.
