Villabosque Community and Ecovillage: Estate and meeting place in Villaviciosa de Odón (Madrid)

Villabosque Community and Ecovillage

Estate and meeting place in Villaviciosa de Odón (Madrid)

The Villabosque ecovillage began on a former paintball field in Villaviciosa de Odón

Villabosque got under way in September 2023 on a rural estate in Villaviciosa de Odón (Madrid), with the backing of Light Humanity, as a community and meeting place for regenerative projects. Amid the holm oaks it had a vegetable garden, cabins, a market and group meetings, and it planned a food forest and an outdoor classroom.

  • What it is: a rural estate turned into a community and meeting place; its website described it as “a laboratory of regenerative solutions”.
  • Where: in Villaviciosa de Odón (Madrid), in the middle of a holm oak forest. Arqods places it in the middle basin of the Guadarrama River.
  • People: Eugenio García-Calderón Huerta, founder of Light Humanity, and Gemma, the two contacts given on the project's website.
  • What was done: a vegetable garden, a market, shared meals and meetings in a circle, as shown in the photos and the video “Villabosque 1.0”; and, still germinating, a food forest and a natural classroom.
  • The idea: to bring food and energy together, with a food forest and a self-sufficient energy community, according to the Arqods profile.
  • Networked: the Iberian Ecovillage Network lists it among its collaborating members.
Aerial view of the Villabosque ecovillage: a meadow crossed by a dirt track
The Villabosque estate seen from a drone, with the dirt track that crosses it and the trees beyond. Photo: Light Humanity archive
A single-story white house behind a bed of chard on the Villabosque estate
The estate's house, behind the chard beds. Photo: Light Humanity archive
A red hut lit up at dusk beside a wooden picnic table at Villabosque
The red hut at dusk, with a picnic table and the stone fire circle. Photo: Light Humanity archive
Dozens of people eat at picnic tables beside the red hut at Villabosque
A shared meal at picnic tables, beside the estate's red hut. Photo: VillaBosque (villabosque.org)
Vídeo: Villabosque 1.0
“Villabosque 1.0”, in 1 minute and 23 seconds: sheep, the VillaBosque sign, a market with clothing and craft stalls, and an outdoor gathering. Video by Eugenio García-Calderón on YouTube (23/03/2024).

A group seeking “a comprehensive change of the system” gave Villabosque its name

The project's website told its origins in a few lines: a group of people came to a rural estate in Villaviciosa de Odón and turned it into a meeting place for regenerative projects.

“We arrived on the land in September 2023 and gave it a name: VillaBosque” — VillaBosque, on its website (villabosque.org)
  • Its past: the land was once used for playing paintball.
  • Its new role: the group saw this natural space as a base for social regenerative projects to thrive in Madrid and for building community.
  • Its purpose: the group said it was working for a comprehensive change of the system: from war to peace, from exploitation to cooperation and from fear to trust.

A laboratory of regenerative solutions in the holm oak forest of Villaviciosa de Odón

A man crouching beside a nighttime bonfire, with a VillaBosque logo sign behind him
A bonfire at night, with a VillaBosque logo sign: some trees and the outline of a house. Photo: Light Humanity archive

VillaBosque's website presented it as a laboratory of regenerative solutions: a place of synergies where alternative people and projects could come together. And it summed up in four words what the estate could be: retreat, office, home and family.

  • Tables and bonfires: shared meals at picnic tables beside the red hut and bonfires at nightfall, as the project's photos show.
  • Become a member: the website invited people to join and help regenerate the Earth and cultivate a community.
  • A research center: the website asked for support from anyone who believed VillaBosque was “a research center useful to the planet”.
  • Its website: villabosque.org can still be read today in the Internet Archive snapshots from April and July 2024.

A food forest and a natural classroom, the two projects still germinating

The VillaBosque website presented two “projects in germination”. One looked to the land and the other to people and how they organize themselves.

  • Food forest: reforesting a vegetable-growing area to turn it into a food forest.
  • Natural classroom: education and sociocracy or holacracy to build environments and relationships with the future in mind.
  • Its motto: “From the small acorn grows the mighty Oak.”

Permaculture, food forests and education: the profiles it was looking for

  • Who it was looking for: experts in permaculture and food forests, educators, volunteers and a fundraiser.
  • Other offers of help: anyone wishing to contribute in another way was invited to write through its contact form.
Silhouette of a person and some trees against a pink and violet sky at sunset
Sunset with the silhouette of a person and the trees: the image with which VillaBosque's website presented its food forest. Photo: VillaBosque (villabosque.org)
About thirty people in a circle beside a tent, among trash bags
A meeting in a circle beside a tent: the photo with which VillaBosque's website presented its natural classroom. Photo: VillaBosque (villabosque.org)

Solar energy and a food forest: Villabosque's profile in the arqODS exhibition on SDG 7

Arqods is an online exhibition by the ENPEU cooperative, born of the “Arquitectura 2030” project to bring the United Nations 2030 Agenda to the School of Architecture. Its page on SDG 7, affordable and clean energy, includes the profile “Solar energy to light up the future. Villabosque Self-Sufficient Ecovillage”, by the Asociación Light Humanity.

  • What it is: an agro-energy project and a regenerative laboratory for ecological, sociological and economic projects.
  • Where it comes from: Light Humanity and a coalition of collaborators and growers who promote permaculture and solar energy to become self-sufficient in energy and food.
  • What it combines: a self-sufficient energy community and food production in a food forest.
  • The solutions it proposes: solar systems that provide access to clean energy, infrastructure for self-sufficiency, and training and jobs in renewables to fight energy poverty.

The energy community proposed in the profile links to another Lab project, the Solar Community Energy Retailer, which offers collective and remote self-consumption of solar and hydroelectric power.

The Iberian Ecovillage Network counts Villabosque among its collaborating members

The Iberian Ecovillage Network (RIE) publishes its list of members on its website. Villabosque appears among the collaborating members, with Light Humanity's email address as its contact.

  • 18 members: 11 ecovillages, from Lakabe and Arterra Bizimodu (Navarre) to Matavenero (León) and Los Portales (Seville), and 7 collaborating members, including the Straw Building Network, Sunseed Desert Technology (Almería) and Villabosque.
  • A Lab neighbor: the same list includes IKI-GAIA (Málaga), the ecovillage of the Ikigaia Community, another Lab project.

Villabosque and the Lab's five other housing projects

Villabosque is one of the six projects in the Housing area of Light Humanity's Ecosocial Innovation Lab, whose work ranges from minimal dwellings to the design of villages and cities.

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