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Summer/Fall 2011 saw a lot of changes onsite at Avalon Springs.

With the planned demolition of the old bath house buildings and about half of the cabins, the site is now more open and spacious, with breezes flowing freely from the upper site down through the landscaped cabins and pools.  The shape and texture of the land is more visible, and soil amendment has begun to prepare for the extensive landscaping.  Meanwhile, initial landscaping includes fragrant pollinator-friendly flowers like lavendar and purple sage, fruit producing fig trees, decorative amaranth, and sculpted paths.

Harvest at Avalon this year brought a bumper crop of white and red grapes, a continual strawberry crop, and lots of tomatoes for stewing, canning, and drying, along with peppers, eggplant, and arugula.

New redwood and cedar hot tubs were installed over a beautiful redwood deck, built from the wood that was once the historic cabins.  While these interim pools may not remain for the final installation, they provide a beautiful vision of the future of Avalon Springs.

All of these improvements were part of the Avalon Team's efforts to showcase the beauty and potential for the eco-resort, to honor the land as it is, and to draw in the final partners for the last funding phase.  Avalon Springs is growing more beautiful, and this is only the beginning. Even through difficult economic times, Avalon Springs is going strong.  It's time to celebrate, and hunker down for the Winter, preparing for construction in the Spring.

Dr. Sujata Dutta Hazarika published an article citing Avalon Springs as a model for sustainable development in her paper Sustainability and Social Change: A Paradigmatic Shift Redefining ‘Growth’ and ‘Consciousness’, published recently in the Journal: Pacific Asia Inquiry, Volume 2, Number 1, Fall 2011.

Relating to Avalon Springs, she writes:

It aims to recreate a culture of sustainability not by a top- down intervention at the level of macro super structures but by reconstruction at the fundamental level of human consciousness that redefines the value system. How far this can be achieved in societies in the West that are far gone in limiting consumption is questionable because of the predominance of non-localizing forces of modernization driven by technology and communication that have already been mentioned but for societies that are half way can check their advances by limiting it within the folds of a restricted value system that was so erroneously imposed by capitalist formations....

...In fact, redefinition of ‘growth’ with a viable business model at the level of value systems can lead to significant changes that are both achievable and conducive with sustainable forms of living as human being on the planet. Avalon Springs can be a useful case study which without contesting the existing model of growth-for prosperity and achievement redefines the same growth by instilling values that were otherwise absent in ideas of ‘consumption’ and ‘commodification’.

Dr. Hazarika goes on to relate this to the tenets of Gandhi's philosophy of ‘Gram Swaraj’ or village autonomy.

On behalf of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (The People's University), she is in conversations with the Avalon Springs about forming an international academic consortium ((GISDP)  Global initiative for Sustainable Development and Planning.  She is currently authoring a book on sustainability with Dr. Saurabh Garg of UC Berkeley, which will continue to view Avalon Springs as an exemplary project.

Her full journal article can be viewed at www.uog.edu/dynamicdata/CLASSPacificAsiaInquiry.aspx.

Canopy Development, led by Tom Horton and supported by Sam Spencer, have joined the Avalon Springs creation team as venture partners, bringing their experience, network, and support in attracting the partners and final funding for the construction phase.  Canopy has been instrumental in the permaculture-inspired design, strategic planning, and practical development of a number of high-profile projects all over the world, all of them eco-resorts and sustainable developments, and most on an even larger scale than Avalon Springs.

Tom Horton on Canopy Development's purpose:

We facilitate preservation of distinct and important natural environments by creating low-impact destination resorts that employ forward-thinking conservation strategies and drive community development. These places of natural and architectural beauty cultivate learning and exploration, foster a healthy lifestyle and leave a lasting legacy for all of us. At the core of our philosophy is the idea that a model of conservation development is one of the best ways to ensure the preservation of our planets most spectacular and fragile natural ecosystems. Creating a way for people to experience and share in the inherent beauty of a place through development not only creates the ability to preserve significant terrestrial and marine environments but also creates stakeholders out of them.

The Canopy Development team has been instrumental in Avalon Springs' progress since Spring 2011, resulting in acceleration of onsite improvements and the creation of an upgraded business plan and offering released in October 2011.

www.canopydevelopment.com

EcoLivingProject.com is an offering of Avalon Springs, providing links and resources for all aspects of eco-living.  Eco-Ways are green tools and technologies.  Eco-Wellness has resources for holistic self-care.  Eco-Culture provides help in relating harmoniously.  Eco-Soul embraces the spiritual aspect of connected living.

EcoLivingProject.com is a collaborative project.  Submit articles and website links you feel embody the integrity of the Field of Alliance, the intelligence of integrated eco-design, and the open-hearted nature you've come to relate with Avalon.

EcoLivingProject.com is a way for Avalon Springs to begin as an educational center, even before the resort is renovated.  We look forward to expanding resources, offerings, and eventually holding classes both onsite and online, so that what is learned here and lived here can be shared with the world.

Structures that heat and cool themselves with no centralized systems?  Yes, this will be the norm at Avalon Springs.  Avalon’s architect, David Arkin, along with his wife architect Anni Tilt, is the principal of Arkin-Tilt based out of Berkeley, California.  And he is an expert in designing structures with the right materials, the right sun exposure, and the right airflow to heat and cool themselves.

Most of all, David Arkin is well-known for creating beautiful buildings that also happen to be sustainable and highly functional.   He says, “We need to show that green design is flexible and inventive and fun and functional and even beautiful. We have had projects published in Sunset, and Country Home Journal, and the Financial Times of London. While we are embarrassed that it is "news" it is absolutely critical that people see that ecology is independent of style.”

David is excited about designing Avalon.  With initial design work already sketched out, he has created a look and feel that integrate a simple elegance with natural surfaces like earthen wall finishes, woven Manzanita branches, and zen-style wood trellising.  The design is described as “Earth Zen,” a perfect complement to the peaceful hot springs waters and lush verdant gardens of Avalon Springs.

Arkin-Tilt: www.ArkinTilt.com

Celebrated BBC documentary film-maker Caroline Harrison has been filming at Avalon Springs as an artist in residence during October-November 2010.  She was intrigued by Avalon's promising role as a demonstration site for eco-living, and became interested in the unique marriage of business and social awareness she witnessed among Avalon's core team.  Caroline offered to edit some of her footage into a short informational piece about Avalon, and that video is to be available on this website.

A native of the UK, Caroline began her film-making career at age 17, when she was hired by the BBC within the Natural History Unit.  Since then she has produced independent films, documentaries, and radio interview content for the science & environment arm of the BBC World Service and the ABC in Australia.  Her award-winning work includes films and productions aired on National Geographic, ZDF, and PBS.

After her stay at Avalon, Caroline is committed to returning periodically, perhaps to assist the team in establishing the educational media center planned for Phase Two development. Meanwhile, she can be found continuing her work to inspire us all toward building a future more friendly to nature and ourselves.

Caroline Harrison: http://carolineharrison.smugmug.com/

International Water expert Betsy Damon praises Avalon’s plans for leading-edge water systems design.  “Water is the creative force of the planet,” says Betsy Damon, describing why Avalon Springs’ approach to showcasing appropriate water systems is so important right now.   With so much water including multiple drinking, mineral, and hot springs, she claims that Avalon is the perfect site to showcase a living water system that is as beautiful as it is efficient.

Damon first became interested in Avalon Springs when she led a panel discussion at the Bioneers Conference of 2009 in Marin, California.  She was impressed by the research the Avalon team had already done on the rainfall, stormwater, and spring water before designing the project.  Since then, Ms. Damon has become a Founding Member of Avalon Springs, and advises the team in creating water systems that will include a beautiful seasonal creek to move stormwater, a greywater recycling system that will channel sink water for watering orchards, and various fountains and waterfalls to create sound, beauty, and to honor the water itself.

With an MFA from Columbia University, Betsy Damon founded Keepers of the Waters in 1991 to serve as an international communications network for projects that restore and preserve water by using a combination of art, science and community involvement.  Among many other projects in Asia and the U.S., she designed the internationally recognized Living Water Garden in Chengdu, China, effectively anchoring a large urban community with a renewed dedication to ecology management.

Keepers of the Waters http://www.keepersofthewaters.org/WhoAndWhat.cfm

Dr. Sujata Dutta Hazarika cited Avalon as a modern demonstration of Mahatma Gandhi’s vision for autonomous villages in her research study as a Fulbright scholar at UC Berkeley titled “De-Constructing Sustainability: Questioning Ideas of Growth and Consciousness” Dr. Hazarika visited the Avalon Springs site and conducted interviews, reviewed plans, and experienced the balance of grounded vision and integrated community aspect present in the project.


On November 16, 2010, Dr. Hazarika presented her research to a group of professors and students at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (ISSI) at UC Berkeley. She focused on Avalon Springs as an emerging example of community living in the West and established a continuum between intentional community initiatives and Mahatma Gandhi's political philosophy of 'Gram Swaraj'. She emphasized the merger of economic autonomy and sustainability with community building and spiritual content of self-reassessment in constructing this continuum.


She noted that many ecovillage initiatives fail to found themselves with a strong economic basis, and thus struggle. Avalon Springs, she noted, is based not only in utopian visions, but also is supported by a solid business plan and economic foundation that can provide an example for successful village models in coming times.


http://www.usief.org.in/2010IndianFulbright-NehruScholarOrientation/SupportFiles/fulbright_program/Sujata-Dutta-Hazarika.html