(Hello again to Amber, one of the bloggers trying out for a spot on the Re-Nest editorial team. Her recent post on aDIY Irrigation System is here - please enjoy the tour she has put together for us today. Comments are welcome!)
Welcome to the Rhizome Collective in Austin, TX. This isn't your usual house tour; and really, it's more of an out-of-the house tour. Austin is home to plenty of green builders and homeowners making sustainable choices, but we like to think this place starts off with a bang. Because at the Rhizome Collective, the point is to reach complete urban sustainability. This is "green home" to the extreme, and the people who live here make daily--even hourly--choices to live a completely green lifestyle.
This cooperative has a plot inside the city limits very close to downtown which actually used to be a parking lot. The non-profit organization has rehabilitated the land and turned it into an urban oasis, complete with grey water recycling, vermicomposting, constructed wetlands...and that's just the beginning. The members are virtually self-sustaining: they farm (on a biofuel tractor), support microlivestock, and teach the community how to do the same through a program called RUST: Radical Urban Sustainability Training.
The style: It's a cooperative; the style is whatever is the most sustainable choice happens to be! Let's call it rustic/eclectic/vintage.
Inspiration: The Earth! Or, better yet: Earth, fire, wind, water....
Biggest Challenge: Working toward a more equal society: "We are working to build the world we want to live in. In our worldview, the dominant values of competition, greed and exploitation would be replaced with cooperation, autonomy and egalitarianism."
Proudest DIY: since everything is DIY, it's hard to pick a top contender...
Thanks to the Rhizome Collective!
-Amber
Photos: Scott Kellogg and the Rhizome Collective
This is fantastic! I have actually had the privilege to visit the Rhizome Collective and have gained an immense amount of respect for the people who take on such a project. I love that it is local, also! This city could definitely keep learning from them. Great post! Thank you.
view ALB220's profile
wow that is really awesome. I love the self-sustainable urban societies. I think Cuba is doing a lot of this stuff. We could learn a lot from them too. Great topic. Great way to show a green house that isnt the normal expensive stuff that I can't afford.
view roundabout12's profile
This is a great post. It's great to see this done in a city, I would associate it with country living, or people who have "dropped out" of urban life. I'd love to hear more about how the organization/home is run. Do people who live there work other jobs? Are there kids? How do they run finances? Is all this eco stuff done on the side, or is it a full time job? Some pics of the inside of the house would also be great.
AT: hire her!
view SFGail's profile
I really like this, and I was just in Austin and wish I had known about it then! But...only the first link worked for me. The subsequent links, under the solar oven and the greywater filtering system, took me to the Phillips house in NC instead...a little confusing!
view wvlinz's profile
Re: SF Gail...
Thanks for the comment! The Rhizome Collective tries to show urban dwellers that sustainability can happen even in an asphalt jungle! The house is like a cooperative, so people have "day jobs" and run the center outside of them. At this point, I do not believe any children live there. They also lead workshops, tours, and events that help pay for some of the costs. It's a non-profit organization, and the land was granted to them by the city. They have a working relationship with one of the local farms as well. Hope that answers some of your questions!
view ambsATX's profile