I have been interested in eco-construction, gardening, and permaculture design for several years now, and I use every opportunity to gain new knowledge and experience. Moreover, such projects are always about communication with like-minded people — those who live in harmony with nature or are on their way toward it.

There is a wonderful European organization called “Erasmus+,” thanks to which people have the opportunity to take part in educational and social projects like the one I’m about to tell you about. This time, fate — with the help of “Erasmus+” and “Green School Village” — brought me to the island of Skiathos in Greece. Yes, the same island where the musical Mamma Mia! was filmed.

The island is wonderful — green, cozy, and beautiful! Our host, Ilektra, the owner of an estate in the forest at an altitude of 450 meters above sea level, gathered 24 people, and by the end, none of us wanted to say goodbye. It was an incredible mix of nationalities, languages, and cultures: Italians, Belgians, French, Greeks, Spaniards, a Portuguese, an Estonian, a Hungarian, a Dane, a Lithuanian, Bulgarians, and me — a Ukrainian. The main language of communication was English, but around us you could constantly hear the “music” of many European tongues. We even joked that we were building the Tower of Babel.

The training lasted for two weeks. For two weeks we slept in tents and caravans, and some whose tents didn’t withstand the rain and wind stayed in neighbors’ houses. We ate incredibly delicious vegetarian food prepared by a local culinary fairy, Dafni, talked, learned, and built.

We were building a small house, 3 by 6 meters, commissioned by our host. It was designed to serve as a multifunctional space for collective activities and could also be divided into three separate rooms to accommodate up to nine guests. Since we had to build with natural materials, our architect instructors designed the house using stone, wood, bamboo, straw, clay, and sand.

Each participant had the chance to try every stage of construction: digging holes for the foundation, carrying and laying stones, leveling the foundation, cutting boards and screwing together wall and floor modules, cleaning bamboo, attaching it to walls, mixing cob, soaking straw in clay slip, applying the cob to the bamboo walls, coating boards with linseed oil, building the roof, laying insulation, and much more. The design allowed several groups to work simultaneously on wall, floor, and foundation modules, which we later assembled into the house’s frame.

In addition to the practical part, we also had theoretical sessions where we learned about foundations, thermal and waterproof insulation, and material properties. We couldn’t have wished for better teachers — Laurane, a young, energetic, and artistic Belgian woman, and Rui, a calm and passionate Portuguese builder, kept our attention perfectly.

During their games, challenges, and theory sessions, I often thought that if all teachers at my university — or at my son’s school — were like them, how quickly and deeply we could all understand the subjects we study. A dream…

Every morning started with breakfast and a Morning Circle, where we practiced sociocracy — discussing community rules and how to improve them. We assigned daily helpers for cooking and cleaning, shared our reflections from the previous day, and planned our work and free time.

Since the course took place in October and our host’s conditions were quite eco-ascetic, camp life was sometimes challenging due to weather changes. But on the other hand, all those lectures in rain and wind, breakfasts standing shoulder to shoulder under the single kitchen roof, and construction in tough conditions only united us more and filled the days with bright emotions.

Looking back on my time in Skiathos, I realized that for 14 days and nights I spent all my time outdoors, constantly moving between terraces with at least 50 meters of elevation difference. I never had enough hours in a day to sleep, complete all the construction tasks, absorb new knowledge, swim in the sea, explore the island, and talk to every one of my teammates.
When saying goodbye to my new friends, I wished to meet each of them again on future projects like this one. And I also dream that one day, my own art-house will be built by a team just like this.