Findhorn Community

A wind swept trailer park sandwiched in between an Air Force base and the North sea sand dunes, Findhorn of the fabled forty pound cabbages and garden divas, hardly seemed a “world center of light”.  Sim Van der Ryn and artist/sculptor/builder Jim Hubbell lead a community design workshop.  The workshop was intense, and brought out the differences in values and outlook present at the time between the builders and operation people, and the more theoretically inclined community members.  Jim and Sim were asked to develop a community housing cluster.  The constant wind, and the value placed on sunlight at the fifty-eighth latitude were two key form determinants.  Sim worked out a plan and then Jim went to work with his free form of reinforcing rod and gunite.  The design was presented the following year.  They were too far out for this far out place, where snug “caravans” seem the preferred mode of housing.