It was in 2017 when we were born as a group with the intention of promoting a cooperative housing project in La Garrotxa, and the first with a rural character in Sostre Cívic.
Three years later we found a heritage in the municipality of Argelaguer, a rustic estate of 240.000 m2, of which 40.000 are cultivated and the rest forest, with a main farmhouse and an old farmhouse in ruins, with a useful surface built of 880 m2. It is part of the Catalog of Farmhouses and Rural Houses on non-developable land, susceptible to reconstruction or rehabilitation.
THE FIRST RURAL PROJECT OF SOSTRE CÍVIC
After assessing the feasibility of the project, in març of 2020 we signed up with the property, ia the Ordinary General Assembly of July 2021 we approved the purchase and start of the housing project of El Turrós. The total price of the operation is €360.000, and it has been possible thanks to the financing of the Cooperative of financial services Coop57. The initial social capital contributed by each person is €15.000, and the usage fees are around €300 per month.
In the future we will study how we can rehabilitate the old farmhouse to make it habitable and so that another group of inhabitants can eventually settle there or expand the current community to new members.
A LONG TRAJECTORY OF COMMUNITY LIFE
The community currently consists of nine adults and one baby, with an intergenerational intention. We share a long history of friendship, coexistence and work, working for the revitalization and promotion of alternative and cooperative economy practices in La Garrotxa.
Since the end of 2021 we have been living in the main building, which is in good condition and only needed minor renovations. It is a two-storey building, with 9 rooms and common spaces: a hall, a kitchen with a fireplace and oven, a very large dining room, and 4 full bathrooms, in addition to the washing machine and the entire ground floor, which will be used as warehouses, pantry and workshops.
We organize ourselves as individual people who form a single coexistence unit, that is to say, we do not consider private spaces that are complete homes. So, we propose a community life with private rooms of different sizes, but with common spaces (bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, storage rooms, etc.) for everyone.
We identify with the practices of ecology, egalitarian relationships, disempowerment, permaculture, interdependence, energy self-sufficiency, degrowth, free education, non-violence...
A COMPREHENSIVE PROJECT FOR LIFE AND RURAL PRODUCTION
We want this project to go beyond residential use. It is posed as a integral project, which takes as a model the close interrelationship of the productive and reproductive life of the peasantry's ways of life, taking advantage of the available spaces to generate human and material wealth. With this aim we want to take advantage of the characteristics of the estate ofEl Turrós to come up with a comprehensive project for rural life, and turn it into the nexus between housing initiatives, agroecology and the circular economy.
This is also why we promote the "Eines Comunes" initiative, which will boost the creation of collective workshops for different food and artisanal products produced on the same farm and by ourselves. This way, we want to cover most of our vital needs within this cooperative social and economic framework in an almost circular way. We are inspired by an economic model where contributions are not valued only in euros, but also in exchanges, time or social currency.
DO YOU WANT TO BE PART OF TURRÓS?
El Turrós it is currently full and has no vacancies. If the project is canceled at any time, all members of the cooperative will be notified. We remind you that the main criterion when transferring the right to assign the use of a home is theseniority order a Sostre Cívic, as contained in article 14 of our statutes. If you are not yet a member, you can do so fromthis page!
And if you want to contact us with any questions or comments, you can write to us at casacomu@riseup.net
Follow our Telegram channel so you don't miss any news!
https://t.me/elturros