Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.06.2007, Side 23

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An hour’s drive to the East of Reykjavík is the
community of Sólheimar with around fifty
houses, home to roughly one hundred persons.
Sólheimar is the first intentional community in
Iceland and the first Icelandic community to be
a member of the Global Eco-Village Network. It
was also the first place in the Nordic countries
to cultivate food bio-dynamically.
A young woman, Sesselja, who had a vision
to treat handicapped people in better ways
than cattle, founded the community in 1930.
Drawing from Rudolf’s Steiner ideas and her
own on how a human society should function,
she started organic growing, allowed mentally
handicapped children (or idiots as they were
then called) to associate with “normal children”,
and in the process upset a great number of
people. Today the community is fairly accepted,
although some minor disputes seem to flare up
every now and again, mostly evolving around
the spending of money, as always seems to be
the case about disputes.
In the community there are a few local run
workplaces, a candle factory, organic nursery,
arts and crafts store, coffeehouse and a small
hotel. Handicapped or not, both work side by
side in these workplaces, which are open to the
public in the summertime. Sólheimar has a well
thought out environmental policy under the
motto: “We did not inherit the earth from our
ancestors - we borrowed it from our children.”
One of the goals the Sólheimar community
strives to achieve is to create a self-sustained
society, relying on organic production and har-
mony between humans and nature. In 2002 a
completely self sustained house was built at
Sólheimar, Sesseljuhús, which houses an edu-
cational environmental center, with the house
itself being the biggest part - a blueprint of
sorts for buildings that are built without having
a negative impact on the environment.
A visit to Sólheimar is a highly recommended
affair. It is a unique place and one that gives a
hint of a different future than ever expanding,
smog filled, detached cities. Check it out.
www.solheimar.is, www.sesseljuhus.is
A Trip to an
Eco-Village
Text by Páll Hilmarsson Photo by Gulli
“The walking path around
the cove in Grafarvogur is my
favourite place in Reykjavík.
It is a great place for jogging,
inline skating or just to stroll
around on a beautiful day in
good company.”
Dofri Hermannsson is an actor and environmen-
talist. He currently works as a Manager of the
Parliamentary Party of the Social Democratic
Alliance.
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