On this hot summer day, the noise of the city famous for its history-laden fibers and revitalized factories was haunting. The loud rebuilding of the large street was painful, certainly because it was the last obstacle to reaching the oasis where I was heading today.
Outskirts in the middle of the city
People dance in the labyrinth of allotment gardens in Łódź, hidden between a sprawling cherry tree and colorful fences that divide individual garden arrangements. However, they do not dance alone, and the movement they participate in was not really initiated by them. Its first performers probably lived hundreds, perhaps thousands of years ago, on different continents, separately, but in fact together. In unity with yourself, the sky, the ground under your feet. By the light of the fire of the fire, telling each other stories whose distant echoes can still be noticed in this strange dance.
At first glance, this dance may have a lot of free-style, improvisation dance, but if you look at it long enough, you can capture the order of movements and even a regular rhythm, a specific timing, reflection on the work of muscles or a sense of space.
It is a dance with the living, a dance that allows you to associate with great creation and be part of it.
In this allotment garden in Łódź, I heard about dancing with permaculture.
Unhurriedness and biodiversity
The first thing that catches the eye is a white caravan. The normally moving vehicle assimilated here with the dense green and entwined with a thicket of ripening blackberries. The yellow gate led straight to a shaded porch where Wojtek and Jacek were sitting talking slowly and drinking lemon balm tea. They greeted me warmly and immediately invited me to join the conversation. The naturalness of their hospitality allowed me to feel at ease and "at home". They were curious about my story and shared with me the plan for today written on a piece of paper - they were therefore also open to adjusting to my preferences and expectations. One of the important points of the day was the planning of the event they wanted to host on the lands of the recently created shared habitat: on Tkaczewska Góra.
After a slightly flowing conversation, we took a walk around the garden and the house. Mostly visually, fruit shrubs, abundant in fleshy fruit at this point in the season, prevailed. Although the plot was not particularly large, delving into its nooks and crannies, one had an impression that could accompany the heroine of the novel The Secret Garden: a pleasant loss in forms, colors and flora that was blooming after many seasons. There was, however, a peculiar order in it, the plants seemed to feel great in their conditions, one could say: they invited us, laughing at us with their fruitful gifts. Here gooseberries, currants, lots of mint and lemon balm, right next to a pond inhabited by a frog, and areas of raspberries and strawberries. On the other hand, herbs and vegetables: oregano, thyme, mullein, nettle, cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkins, leek clumps and a great abundance of arugula. Hearing about the next plants, I had the feeling that cooperation (dance?) - with vegetation consists in careful observation of the natural flows of water, energy, in other words: giving the field to flora and fauna in terms of their natural development. Each point of the tour was "consumed" and I was invited to try everything, look at it, smell it, stay in touch. a spontaneous undertaking that emerged during the talks was the joint picking of very sweet gooseberries. So we collected and talked about various forms of community life. It was one of the leading topics that both Wojtek and Jacek lived on. Creating and maintaining a healthy co-living. What is this?
Co-living or living in the community
Co-living is "as old as the world" phenomenon, which in recent years has been growing with both new forms and factors shaping this concept. There are positive factors as well as those determined by the growing socio-economic and ecological crisis (or the crisis as a whole, because it affects all spheres of human and non-human life and all "minor" crises are interconnected). At the same time, all factors should be considered systemically, the so-called positive ones are closely related to those resulting from the crisis, or certain, sometimes catastrophic events that have a repercussion in society. Among these so-called On the positive side, one can undoubtedly mention the interest in living in a community that supports individual and group development, provides a sense of security and belonging to a group. Sharing resources and, above all, work makes community life projects more ecological and economic undertakings, also in the context of sharing knowledge, skills or organizing free time.
Progressive demographic problems, pauperization of work and the ubiquitous precariat are just some of the circumstances that also influence the interest in co-living. In the literature on the subject, co-living is overwhelmingly treated as a positive phenomenon contributing to the improvement of the situation of the less affluent or people on the verge of poverty, and also provides an opportunity to rebuild social relations and values that are still in deficit in society: trust. Co-living refers to a housing system in which individuals have access to a range of shared facilities that they can use - communities of independent homes with shared space.
The costs related to the maintenance of common areas may be covered by the residents through ongoing maintenance fees or by the residents themselves responsible for the maintenance of communal facilities.
The life project of my interlocutors was to create conditions for the emergence of a form of community in the suburban area based on several pillars maintaining understanding and developing part of the "commonality" of community life.
An element that was a precondition in the case of Tkaczewska Góra was the drawing up of an agreement containing rules that would be understandable to both parties. The motive, however, was not a lack of trust, but the experiences gained in the course of life and maintaining a healthy distance to the complexities of human nature and the mechanisms of human activities in the process of establishing a community. Perhaps this type of regulation of cooperation may seem more than obvious, but in the case of community projects or the so-called ecovillage, or in other words: intentional communities, it is not so. The rudimentary establishment of rules of living together is often pushed to the background, not because of a lack of interest in the rules, but largely on the assumption that a group of people who want to "establish a community" know so well as friends that additional writing down the assumptions of cooperation and coexistence can wait. After all, work in the first stages of community life is beyond measure and energy is often channeled to dealing with matter: earthworks, moving, finishing things in other spheres ...
My interlocutors took time. They wrote down points, taking their time, discussing and inviting me to express my opinion. Initially, in my opinion, it was an intrusion into their "interests", however, I saw my presence as an added value of the community normalization process. I could listen and see the so-called with a fresh ear and eye, support their operation, or even celebrate the moment of writing down the entire lease agreement.
Co-living, especially in the context of creating an extra-urban community, although it really applies to everyone, but sometimes not in such a direct way, it also means cooperation and coexistence with the surrounding natural and neighborly environment. The allotment garden in which we were now was the starting point for Wojtek to continue dancing with permaculture. For there is no nature on Earth without human influence and human life separate from nature. Together, we have evolved to reflect our interplay and interactions. The permaculture plot of land reminded me that an enormous variety of species has adapted and evolved into an urban environment that now offers a safer living environment for many than agricultural land. Through systematic co-design and co-creation, one can speak of the so-called "prototype urban interventions" in the existing landscape of the urban fabric. And although we were surrounded by greenery, it was easy to see the differences between Wojtek's garden and the surrounding garden projects. His plot was a kind of laboratory where cooperation was attempted at the level of a group of people (Wojtek educates about permaculture) and at the level of human-nature relations. This is another pillar of life on which healthy co-living can be based. We moved smoothly about the organization of the Co-living Rally in Osada Tkaczewska Góra and collecting ingredients for a shared dinner.
Rally
Joining more people to the initiative and performing bolder activities related to shaping the landscape on the land on which the Osada is to be built became an impulse to organize the rally. The Co-living rally aims to present the ideas behind the Osada members and potential plans for the development of the project, as well as to create a space for the exchange of stories, knowledge and all skills in a friendly and family atmosphere. You can learn more about it here, on the event's website (in Polish): https://www.facebook.com/events/5116064575183491/ and by contacting the organizers: adresatkaczewskagora@gmail.com