This is the developing systems plan for WHTC.
World Help Training Center Overview
The World Help Training Center (WHTC) (homepage) is a convertible community in central Georgia.
The World Help Training Center is an ecologically centered convertible community near Macon, GA. It is sited on 30 acres and the community is currently working on residential housing and agricultural planning in advance of the 2009 spring planting season.
World Help Training Center is a living training center and Micro-Community ("The MiCom") created to serve the training needs of individuals preparing for sustainability based development projects around the world. The Center will focus on providing training in how to develop affordable alternatives of sustainable, ecologically friendly and economically attainable communities. Within the Center, our specific focus will be on construction, agriculture and light husbandry, alternative energy, clean water, transportation and micro-commerce. The MiCom is designed to be a micro-community developed on the model of an intentional "convertible community."
The MiCom will be comprised initially of the members of the Center's development team and their families but in general it will be made up of individuals who: a) are concerned for the practical dimensions of sustainability, b) share a common intention of spiritual, physical and emotional growth and well being, c) are concerned and committed to focusing on the physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions of sustainability, and d) are committed to the development of internal commerce that will fund sustainability. We anticipate that initially all MiCom members will work for the Center, but initially many may work off-site or have their own micro-enterprises that can be managed on-site. In addition we anticipate that initially there may be Center employees that do not live within the MiCom, but the eventual goal will be that all Center employees live within the MiCom.
We strongly hold that the Center and MiCom will be a living laboratory that never fully completes or realizes our ideals because they will be continually evolving. New ideas and technology will challenge us to continuously implement new and challenging techniques and training programs within the Center and the MiCom. Because we hold this true, we believe the Center and MiCom will be a place for continued learning, research and the resulting growth.
The ultimate goal of this project is to educate and facilitate environmental, community and spiritual renewal.
Convertible Community
The coined phrase "convertible community" came about during the development of the MiCom at World Help Training Center. The concept of convertible is about efficient design of land space to allow the greatest use of space and the most flexibility. In designing the land space that would house the World Help Training Center, the MiCom at WHTC and the Spiritual Wellness Center, it was important to provided the following functionality:
- Space that maintains a rustic, rural setting similar to an agricultural village or rural farm - The land space is approximately 30 acres of rural agricultural land that has for decades been a reseeding pine tree forest. The land use is intended to be a residential community that supports an agricultural development of sustainability. The agriculture will include field crops, vegetables, fruit and nut orchards among other things. Maintaining the natural aesthetics of the land is desired.
- Accommodate a year-round residential population - The community will be designed to accommodate the full-time farm workers, training center and Spiritual Wellness Center employees. Housing accommodations should be sustainable but sufficient to accommodate the variety of seasons. Every effort will be made to use renewable sustainable materials and practices. Residences will be designed so that modular expansion is a possibility should the need for expansion arise.
- Accommodate seasonal increases in residential population - Design considerations will be included into the landscape plan to allow for the rapid increase in residents. There will be a combination of permanent structures that can double as artist workshops, training classrooms and living accommodations. In addition, the park pads used for picnic or outdoor teaching/classes will be designed to also act as hexayurt platforms that could accommodate hexayurts, standard or military style tents or other relief style structures. These hexayurt platforms will remain stationary year-round. The hexayurt platforms will offer greater convertibility because the platforms will allow plumbing and electrical to be installed into semi-permanent structures(like a hexayurt) with the greatest ease.
- Accommodate crisis management populations as the regional demands present - If additional accommodations are necessary beyond what the seasonal facilities allow, the landscape plan will have designated camping sites that will be located within the park design. This will allow open spaces to serve as a temporary/crisis shelter facility. On-site storage will maintain crisis level accommodations to include portable, semi-permanent dwelling structures like folding hexayurts which can be rapidly deployed in under an hours time.
- Accommodate social and training gatherings in the same space - The variety of spaces designed into the landscape plan include hexayurt platforms that also can double as event staging for a variety of training or social events. With added temporary structures installed, the platforms can double as outdoor gazebo or open air amphitheater.
- Manage land to maintain the sustainability of the maximum capacity of community residents - The gardening plan will take into accommodations the year-round population and the potential crisis or seasonal populations. The garden designs will be to maximize crop yield and minimize required spacing. Gardening designs will be conveniently located in proximity to the residential districts and also offer a larger garden space for additional crops. Gardening space will be designed in for seasonal gardens and designate should the need for addition garden plots should the crisis residential populations increase. Until a specific need, those spaces will grow nutrient rick cover crops to reduce the necessary work other than simple tilling if the need to plant for production arises.
- Convertible plumbing systems - Feasibility of a water tower installation will be done and plumbing lines from the water tower or well will be run through the designed residential lots. Plumbing will be designed in such a way so that plumbing access can be hooked to the semi-permanent dwelling platforms or lots with nominal tools and rapidly. This will allow for running water to each living site and surrounding garden spaces. Also the plumbing will run a gray water collection system to reduce the septic needs. As standard practice composting toilets will be used to reduce the septic system demands. Systems will be installed near all roof structured buildings to harvest rainwater for facility use.
- Convertible workshops - permanent structures will be erected near the park area that can be used for artist workshops and training classrooms but that can also be used as residential dwellings and water and power can be integrated rapidly.
- The agricultural fields will be designed efficiently t allow the maximum production. Design will also be such that the addition of basic husbandry could be implemented rapidly.
Land Design
Convertible Lots
Convertible lots are designed to meet several levels of personal need ranging from low usage to high usage. The rural lots are 1/10 acre or more (in increments of 1/10th acre). All lots will have access to well water and common use facilities which include bathroom/shower facilities, cooking facilities and laundry facilities.
Lots are designed to allow individuals to engage in rural camping easily. Moderate usage applications will allow lot-holders to purchase, lease or build semi-permanent structure(s) which can be used to retreat in or for longer periods of use as crisis housing. The lots are designed to be able to quickly connect with the water system and allow a 2-8 hour deployment time in the event of emergency. Lot-holders can opt to purchase a complete housing kit that would include a dwelling structure (insulated or not), power and sewer systems, emergency agriculture systems and storage of such systems.
A high use application for the land lot-holders is full time residency as an on-site farmer. The lot is designed to provide space to maintain self-sufficiency levels of agriculture and small husbandry to sustain a small family.
Water
This section will outline the phased planning for ensuring adequate clean water at the WHTC.
- point 1
- sub point 1
Water heating - It seems that the tankless water technology has become an affordable, portable option for water heating. The Ecotemp L5 tankless water heater offers a propane/battery powered ondemand water heater. One 20 pound tank can provide approximately 18 hours of hot water. This technology can be used to set up a bath house, but it is affordable enough so that it could be a packaged part of each homestead kit. The concern is propane delivery. There must be adequate reserves or access to this source of fuel.