The idea of Karise Permatopia arose from the idea of creating a meaningful and modern co-housing that enables low cost of living as well as environmental sustainability based on the idea of permaculture.
Can you elaborate on the term ’permaculture’?
Sure. A permacultural system is a system that does not affect its surrounding in such a way that the surroundings cannot sustain the system. That is, a system that does not undermine its own existence. There is a huge focus on the use of fossil fuels at the moment, but we’re barely mentioning the fact that we are running out of nutrients like phosphorus, which means that the system we live in – in this case our agricultural system – inevitably will undermine itself. Therefore, we asked ourselves the question:
We had a chat with Kennet Harpsøe, one of the bright minds behind the project…
Kennet, can you tell us about the concept of Karise Permatopia?
The concept of Karise Permatopia is based on the philosophy of permaculture – a permanent culture – where the basic understanding is that sustainable individuals doesn’t exist. Only systems can be sustainable, and one would want to live in a system which is. With a project like Karise Permatopia, we want to show that living a sustainable life isn’t that hard to achieve and that you actually can build sustainable systems designed for the future, and not just the next 50 years. In my opinion, the word ‘sustainability’ has become such a buzzword and it has lost its true impact and meaning.
“How can we incorporate sustainability into our lives if we want to exist in the future?” We have to figure out how to live a life without the use of fossil fuels, but how? We need to be strategic and think long-term, as I mentioned before, and we need to think about the preservation of our resources – renewable energy, recycling nutrients, etc. This refers to the philosophy that individuals cannot be sustainable, only the system in which we live, can. The system we live in now is inherently undermining itself and that is why we need to create a system – a new culture, an agricultural culture, so to speak, that doesn’t undermine itself. Recycling our nutrients is a means to that end. When it comes to systems undermining itself – take for example the use of phosphorus; at the moment, we import phosphorus from Morocco, which we spread across our fields, which wind up into the wheat we’re producing. This wheat is an ingredient in the bread we eat, which wind up into the toilet and at last released into the sea, which ruins the fishing industry by causing hypoxic death zones in the oceans.
How do people react to the philosophy and concept of Karise Permatopia?
A lot of people find it quite interesting and a really cool, innovative way to live and to think about sustainability. Others are not used to think about sustainability as a system and might be a bit sceptic about the whole idea, but I would say that most people I talk to are pro-Karise Permatopia! How is the communal sense of Karise Permatopia going to be a part of everyday life?
We consider Karise Permatopia as a working co-operative, where each individual contributes with two hours of work each week. In my opinion, it is not sufficient to live sideby-side and then call it a community. For a community to exist, there should be a common cause. In other words, you might ask yourself – what is the purpose of the community? My claim is that Karise Permatopia is different than other projects, because we have a clear purpose with the project; the purpose is to find a way to create a permacultural system and learn from these experiences. We want to know how far we can go in terms of self-sufficiency, maintaining an agriculture and use a supply system based on the permacultural idea. There is a purpose and I think that this purpose will drive the community far beyond what we have seen with other sustainable communities across the country. Additionally, a lot of the future residents want to be part of a meaningful community, which I believe Karise Permatopia will be.
How is the work co-operative coordinated?
Well, that’s a good question. The first residents move in on November 6, so we’ll have to see how it goes. However, we do have a set of minimum requirements to become part of the Karise Permatopia community. First, you must be a member of the cooperative society. Second and obviously, you must pay your share. Third, as I mentioned before, you must contribute with two hours of work each week per person living here. In 2 hours times 150 people makes about seven fulltime equivalents. The biggest challenge of this project might be the fact that there is a big difference between having seven people for seven fulltime positions and 150 people for seven fulltime positions. It is going to be a challenge, I admit that. We are greatly inspired by sociocracy, which is a rather new way to create a culture of decision making grounded in self-governing working groups. We’ll have to see how it goes. Are there prerequisites to apply for an apartment, co-operative or owned property?
We want Karise Permatopia to reflect the surrounding society as much as possible. This means that we have divided the population into five different demographic categories. And then we have an ideal quota for these five categories. This is done to ensure that the community will exist in the future and to avoid replacement of a large group of residents at one time. To create a sustainable system, it is equally important to create a diverse community representing the Danish society.
Thank you for sharing, Kennet!