Arterra Bizimodu

description of organisation

Arterra Bizimodu is an intentional community that was born in the spring of 2014 in the town of Artieda, Navarra. With the motto "Another world is not only possible, but necessary", Arterra Bizimodu has been developing as an ecovillage for 7 years with the aim of boosting activities towards self-sufficiency and investigating other economies that reflect a new balance between the personal and the collective, deploying the creativity and diverse talents of each of the people who join the project.

We present ourselves as another response to the prevailing crisis. We are self-organizing, supporting the birth of diverse entrepreneurial initiatives, workshops, courses, gardens, crafts, music, cooperatives. Being a space for co-housing, in which to experience sustainability in four dimensions: ecological, economic, social and cultural; we create a living space offering the experience of low-impact lifestyles as a way of collaborating to combat climate change.

We put into practice co-living in an old rural hotel, where each family nucleus has its individual space, while we share common spaces. We have 8000 square meters of multipurpose spaces: we have transformed many of the spaces into optimal and sustainable places for the development of our purposes. We still have work to turn an old building into a sustainable habitat.

We are an experiment in Sociocracy, exploring other ways of self-government and collective management. It is an innovative self-government model that seeks to harmonize the distribution of power and efficiency in organizations.

A training centre is developed around the ecosocial transition, focused on people interested in all those issues related to sustainable and regenerative lifestyles.


For all this, we develop:
1. A community project based on Eco-Housing. An Ecovillage in the rural environment.
2. A training space for the development of new skills and the dissemination of tools for other lifestyles (Campus Transición)
3. A broad food sovereignty and agroecology project and as an enterprise. Following the ASC Community Sustained Agriculture model. Bakery, brewing fermented, beer, etc. At present it is complemented with mushroom cultivation, beekeeping, chicken coop-composter, etc. Actively working on the improvement of soils through the production of inputs such as Biochar, microorganisms.
5. Experimenting with complementary currencies, as an internal system of distribution of responsibilities.
6. A social experiment in Sociocratic Governance.
7. Space for the co-parenting and training of children, creativity, psychomotor skills, montessori spaces.
8. A low-cost lifestyle that allows the development of sustainability entrepreneurship with less effort. ABM welcomes different entrepreneurial projects: Editorial ecohabitar Coop, Gen Europa office (European ecovillage network), Baratzan Blai ASC, as well as spaces for working from home (connectivity).
9. Collaboration with entities in the local territory, seeking synergies and mutual support in rural areas.
10. Participation in related, local, state and international networks as a way to learn good practices, increase impact, and collaborate with friendly networks.
11. Development of social tools: facilitation of groups, governance models and innovative decision-making models, conflict management, teamwork.
12. Energy sovereignty: solar panels, implementation of thermal plates, biodigester project.

Daily activities:
Food sovereignty: Practices in orchards, rainfed crops, fruit trees, mushroom crops, beekeeping, composting chicken coop, canned, fermented, dehydrated.
Communication and networks: care of the web and publications, creation of audiovisual materials,
Daily life: cleaning of common spaces, gardens. Common kitchen, taking care of children.
Training center: eco-social transition campus: development of methodology, innovative pedagogical tools, audiovisual materials.
Bioconstruction and maintenance: fixes in facilities, improvements, beautification, clay linings.
Art: music, ceramics, mosaics.