Felix Garbe

Felix has spent 6 years bringing a formerly abandoned village in the Spanish Pyrenees back to life and establishing an off-grid community. When he and 3 others found the place in 2019, trees and bushes had nearly taken over and the ancient stone houses were severely damaged or completely collapsed. Together, the group freed the old paths, re-built one house after the other, and installed a water system and solar panels. Their dream also included a high degree of self-sufficiency which is why they set up several gardens scattered across the village. Felix experimented with permaculture principles to nourish the ground, re-build the soil, and begin to grow food. The group also began to diversify the pine monoculture around the village to help it grow into a forest in the future.

Everybody involved in this project had their personal motivations but for Felix, the main one was political: finding a way to live outside the world-destroying machine and inspire others to do the same. Hundreds of people eventually came to visit the village and without exception they did feel inspired by it – but everybody returned to their normal lives. Eventually, this led Felix to leave the village and move back to civilization in order to build a project that would allow others to take a step towards a sane and sustainable future. This project is called the Garden Archipelago and its mission is build a network of community gardens and use them as a basis for a democratic, post-capitalist economy.