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Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World
The eastern savannas of war-ravaged Colombia, known as the llanos, are among the most brutal environments on Earth, an unlikely setting for one of the most hopeful environmental stories ever told. Here, more than twenty-five years ago, an intrepid visionary named Paolo Lugari set out to create a village that could sustain itself agriculturally, economically, and artistically. He reasoned that if a community could survive in the Colombian llanos, it would be possible to live anywhere. The new village was named after the graceful river terns common in the area, los gaviotas.
The early inhabitants of Gaviotas soon realized that if they wanted even basic necessities, they would need to be very resourceful. So they invented wind turbines that convert mild breezes into energy, super-efficient pumps that tap previously inaccessible sources of water, and solar kettles that sterilize drinking water using the furious heat of the tropical sun.
They even invented a rain forest! Two million pine trees planted as a renewable crop have unexpectedly allowed the rain forest to re-establish itself. Paolo Lugari and the Gaviotans, in their quest to create a model human habitat, serendipitously renewed an entire ecosystem. This is why Colombian author Gabriel GarcÂa M¡rquez has called Lugari as "The Inventor of the World."
The early inhabitants of Gaviotas soon realized that if they wanted even basic necessities, they would need to be very resourceful. So they invented wind turbines that convert mild breezes into energy, super-efficient pumps that tap previously inaccessible sources of water, and solar kettles that sterilize drinking water using the furious heat of the tropical sun.
They even invented a rain forest! Two million pine trees planted as a renewable crop have unexpectedly allowed the rain forest to re-establish itself. Paolo Lugari and the Gaviotans, in their quest to create a model human habitat, serendipitously renewed an entire ecosystem. This is why Colombian author Gabriel GarcÂa M¡rquez has called Lugari as "The Inventor of the World."
240 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1998
62 people are currently reading
1,179 people want to read
About the author
Alan Weisman
10Ìýbooks718ÌýfollowersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Alan Weisman's reports from around the world have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Orion, Wilson Quarterly, Vanity Fair, Mother Jones, Discover, Audubon, Condé Nast Traveler, and in many anthologies, including Best American Science Writing 2006. His most recent book, The World Without Us, a bestseller translated into 30 languages, was named the Best Nonfiction Book of 2007 by both Time Magazine and Entertainment Weekly, the #1 Nonfiction Audiobook of 2007 by iTunes; a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction, for the Orion Prize, and a Book Sense 2008 Honor Book. His previous books include An Echo In My Blood; Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World (10th anniversary edition available from Chelsea Green); and La Frontera: The United States Border With Mexico. He has also written the introduction for The World We Have by Thich Nhat Hanh, available this fall from Parallax Press. A senior producer for Homelands Productions, Weisman’s documentaries have aired on National Public Radio, Public Radio International, and American Public Media. Each spring, he leads an annual field program in international journalism at the University of Arizona, where is Laureate Associate Professor in Journalism and Latin American Studies. He and his wife, sculptor Beckie Kravetz, live in western Massachusetts.
Alan Weisman's reports from around the world have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Orion, Wilson Quarterly, Vanity Fair, Mother Jones, Discover, Audubon, Condé Nast Traveler, and in many anthologies, including Best American Science Writing 2006. His most recent book, The World Without Us, a bestseller translated into 30 languages, was named the Best Nonfiction Book of 2007 by both Time Magazine and Entertainment Weekly, the #1 Nonfiction Audiobook of 2007 by iTunes; a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction, for the Orion Prize, and a Book Sense 2008 Honor Book. His previous books include An Echo In My Blood; Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World (10th anniversary edition available from Chelsea Green); and La Frontera: The United States Border With Mexico. He has also written the introduction for The World We Have by Thich Nhat Hanh, available this fall from Parallax Press. A senior producer for Homelands Productions, Weisman’s documentaries have aired on National Public Radio, Public Radio International, and American Public Media. Each spring, he leads an annual field program in international journalism at the University of Arizona, where is Laureate Associate Professor in Journalism and Latin American Studies. He and his wife, sculptor Beckie Kravetz, live in western Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
March 1, 2014
This reminds me of Audre Lorde's quote, "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." So what tools should we use? And once the house is dismantled, what do we build instead? Using Gaviotas as a case study, it takes a whole lot of trial and error, and taking absolutely no ideas or assumptions for granted.
I think my favorite phrase from this book was along the lines of "This isn't a utopia. It's a topia." This realistic approach to sustainable ideals is so encouraging.
It's interesting that while the engineers and scientists were approaching technical problems from new and innovative angles, they were still replicating systems of oppression. It took community members without "sanctioned" education, youth, and (to some extent) sociologists to have a forum to voice their opinions and approach the issues with the same spirit of innovation. This took years and years to happen, but the results have restored my faith in humanity just a little bit.
I think my favorite phrase from this book was along the lines of "This isn't a utopia. It's a topia." This realistic approach to sustainable ideals is so encouraging.
It's interesting that while the engineers and scientists were approaching technical problems from new and innovative angles, they were still replicating systems of oppression. It took community members without "sanctioned" education, youth, and (to some extent) sociologists to have a forum to voice their opinions and approach the issues with the same spirit of innovation. This took years and years to happen, but the results have restored my faith in humanity just a little bit.
February 12, 2008
It is funny how today we are talking about the energy crisis and 20 years ago people were already working on it. The problem isn't that there isn't cheap renewable energy but that no one knows about it.
Nothing shows this more than when the Colombian presidential canidate shows up and says "hey when I become president I want your solar panels on our building." Then the author mentions how Jimmy Carter put solar heating panels on the whitehouse and gave incentinves to the development of alternative energy sources. And then good 'ol Ronald Reagan not only removes the panels from the roof but the funding and promotion of alternative energies. Thanks Ron.
Nothing shows this more than when the Colombian presidential canidate shows up and says "hey when I become president I want your solar panels on our building." Then the author mentions how Jimmy Carter put solar heating panels on the whitehouse and gave incentinves to the development of alternative energy sources. And then good 'ol Ronald Reagan not only removes the panels from the roof but the funding and promotion of alternative energies. Thanks Ron.
November 25, 2012
Real people doing real work to solve real problems - we should all be as ballsy and inspired with our precious time here. No matter what you think of Weisman's writing style (not a problem at all for me - I liked it and thought it helped keep a lot of information that otherwise might be overwhelming nicely flowing), this is an essential historical account of a few people taking big chances and the rest of us being much better off for it. Should be mandatory reading for all sectors of society. This is the community website - - it's in Spanish but if you go the bottom you can download an English version - just check out the gallery (click "fotos" at the top) to get a visual idea of what they've accomplished. If you are so adverse to another language that you can't be bothered then check out the Friends of Gaviotas site - but at least give the book a spin. You'll be happy you did...
September 12, 2007
In 1971, a group of Colombians set out to prove that people could survive and thrive in a barren environment - in this case, the barren eastern savanna of their country. And, amid Columbia's violent political upheavals, they did. One of the most hopeful accounts of living lightly, kindly, and creatively on the earth I've read. Brilliant ideas and persistent research led the community to total energy self-sufficiency. Insightful writing.
December 8, 2014
I gave it a 4 because I think learning about Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World is a very worthwhile read.
Some have commented that the writing was weak. I think it was a difficult book to write since it was about a lot of people, technological changes, and broad spectrum of chronological changes.
I was fascinated with the success of the people in Gaviotas. I am very intrigued about their mission. The political and economic alternative it presents is worth the read.
The following links provide some additional information about the village and mission -
1)About Gaviotas in Colombia ()
2) Paolo Lugari founder of Gaviotas ()
The description of the plants and birds provide a context for the area. I would encourage you to read it all and learn about this place. It may well provide you some educational, social and eco-technological insights that could trigger your own involvement.
Some have commented that the writing was weak. I think it was a difficult book to write since it was about a lot of people, technological changes, and broad spectrum of chronological changes.
I was fascinated with the success of the people in Gaviotas. I am very intrigued about their mission. The political and economic alternative it presents is worth the read.
The following links provide some additional information about the village and mission -
1)About Gaviotas in Colombia ()
2) Paolo Lugari founder of Gaviotas ()
The description of the plants and birds provide a context for the area. I would encourage you to read it all and learn about this place. It may well provide you some educational, social and eco-technological insights that could trigger your own involvement.
July 18, 2007
This book was amazing. It tells the story of an Columbian village that created a safe, self-sufficient, and flourishing community in the middle of not only a desert but a gorrilla military torn country. Ever wonder how hydroponic growing was discovered? Or how about the world's first solar powered refridgerator? This book brings you step by step how these amzaing inventions were thought of and built by a village working together for everyone's benefit.
This book will change the way you approach any problem or challenge and inspire you create something great for everyone's future. If you thought "An Inconvenient Truth" was eye opening then Gaviotas will inspire you to creatively do something about our down spiralling environment.
Thanks to Shauna Sellers for originally recommending this book to me in Spring 2007.
This book will change the way you approach any problem or challenge and inspire you create something great for everyone's future. If you thought "An Inconvenient Truth" was eye opening then Gaviotas will inspire you to creatively do something about our down spiralling environment.
Thanks to Shauna Sellers for originally recommending this book to me in Spring 2007.
August 4, 2008
Entrepreneurs all throughout the world today are seeking to retrofit our bulky, inefficient city infrastructures to create sustainable communities. More than 35 years ago, Paolo Lugari and a group of Colombian engineers and dreamers took a different approach and, beginning with a barren savanna, built their own sustainable community from scratch. Over the next few decades, 'Gaviotas' became the largest tropical reforestation project in the world and a hot bed of 'appropriate technology', years before the term went mainstream.
This is a must-read for anyone who's ever seen the waste in their own community and thought we could do better. Even more, 'Gaviotas' is the inspiring tale of what kind of a community results when dreaming, hacking, and experimenting are encouraged and funded instead of suppressed in the face of the alluring but increasingly dangerous status quo.
This is a must-read for anyone who's ever seen the waste in their own community and thought we could do better. Even more, 'Gaviotas' is the inspiring tale of what kind of a community results when dreaming, hacking, and experimenting are encouraged and funded instead of suppressed in the face of the alluring but increasingly dangerous status quo.
June 29, 2015
In the arid plains of eastern Columbia lies the tiny village of Gaviotas, cut off from the outside by exceedingly unforgiving jungles, which also happen to be occupied by a bewildering variety of violent guerillas (NOT gorillas).
The book portrays a well nigh impossible scene there: natives, settlers, and alternative-development types using renewable energy, creative lo-tech engineering, and a culture of egalitarianism to find sustainable ways to thrive (for 50 plus years now) in the badlands of one of the most troubled countries in South America.
But its not flowers and rainbows and utopian rhetoric...its mostly an NPR-style description of a bunch of people who work hard, learn, invent tools and stuff (complete with blueprint illustrations) and fall in love with the place. Very good reads, as it were.
NB: Gaviotas bears a faint resemblance to America's Burning Man festival, i.e. it features people in an alternative community amidst an unhospitable environment. But there are significant differences between the two: Gaviotas is sustainable, practical, and features prominently in all sorts of UN Development Programme literature whilst Burning Man is an elaborate way for hippies in the richest country on earth to congregate, take drugs, and feel self-satisfied.
The book portrays a well nigh impossible scene there: natives, settlers, and alternative-development types using renewable energy, creative lo-tech engineering, and a culture of egalitarianism to find sustainable ways to thrive (for 50 plus years now) in the badlands of one of the most troubled countries in South America.
But its not flowers and rainbows and utopian rhetoric...its mostly an NPR-style description of a bunch of people who work hard, learn, invent tools and stuff (complete with blueprint illustrations) and fall in love with the place. Very good reads, as it were.
NB: Gaviotas bears a faint resemblance to America's Burning Man festival, i.e. it features people in an alternative community amidst an unhospitable environment. But there are significant differences between the two: Gaviotas is sustainable, practical, and features prominently in all sorts of UN Development Programme literature whilst Burning Man is an elaborate way for hippies in the richest country on earth to congregate, take drugs, and feel self-satisfied.
May 6, 2008
Wow.
This book flies in the face of pessimists grown frustrated with the status quo.
Gaviotas is a topia, born in the savannas of Columbia where nothing would grow, and nobody cared. Surrounded by an austere environment, this topia survived the ebs and flows of political climate changes, the intense guerilla and narcotraficantes that have engulfed their nation, and has become a beacon that the world would do well to pay attention to!
Technology for alternative energy has been available for decades! This book lays out how energy independence is possible, how the ingenuity of a few bright and curious minds allowed to dream can change the world, and how crushing blows and political nightmares cannot crush the human spirit at its best. Gaviotas is a community that shows the rest of the world what is possible. And it made me take stock in what really matters in this life.
This book flies in the face of pessimists grown frustrated with the status quo.
Gaviotas is a topia, born in the savannas of Columbia where nothing would grow, and nobody cared. Surrounded by an austere environment, this topia survived the ebs and flows of political climate changes, the intense guerilla and narcotraficantes that have engulfed their nation, and has become a beacon that the world would do well to pay attention to!
Technology for alternative energy has been available for decades! This book lays out how energy independence is possible, how the ingenuity of a few bright and curious minds allowed to dream can change the world, and how crushing blows and political nightmares cannot crush the human spirit at its best. Gaviotas is a community that shows the rest of the world what is possible. And it made me take stock in what really matters in this life.
December 22, 2010
Gaviotas, the sustainable intentional community in Columbia, gets five stars. But Gaviotas, the book gets only three, because the poor writing style and neigh-inexistent narrative arc make it hard for the reader to build up any momentum.
Readability aside, I agree with other reviewers here that the substance of the story is remarkable. The way that Pablo Lugari, the town's founder, succeeded in building and sustaining this community in harmony with nature is an inspiration. Because the site began with few natural resources (in the conventional sense), the villagers were obliged to live differently. To everyone's surprise but their own, they found that living differently could mean living better. Scarcity and resource restraints also compelled them to nurture and support their ecosystem (as opposed to the usual take take take), allowing increased viability and plentitude over time.
Readability aside, I agree with other reviewers here that the substance of the story is remarkable. The way that Pablo Lugari, the town's founder, succeeded in building and sustaining this community in harmony with nature is an inspiration. Because the site began with few natural resources (in the conventional sense), the villagers were obliged to live differently. To everyone's surprise but their own, they found that living differently could mean living better. Scarcity and resource restraints also compelled them to nurture and support their ecosystem (as opposed to the usual take take take), allowing increased viability and plentitude over time.
January 23, 2009
A fine environmental success story: artists, engineers and philosophers, 16 hours from the nearest city on barren and leached grasslands in Eastern Columbia, regenerate an ancient native rain forest, invent wind turbines, solar collectors that work in the rain, water pumps that hook up to children's see-saws, grow food in water and give new meanings to sustainable development and appropriate technology.
It's written in a personal, light and deceptively easy style by Alan Weisman who included this example among a National Public Radio series documenting possible solutions to the planet's greatest environmental problems.
It's written in a personal, light and deceptively easy style by Alan Weisman who included this example among a National Public Radio series documenting possible solutions to the planet's greatest environmental problems.
November 14, 2007
Inspiring read. In drug-infested, violence-torn Columbia, a group of optimistic and persistent inventors begin to develop technologies (often from the most surprising materials and processes!) to contribute to sustainability (water heating, water purification, energy, agricutlure, and more...)in the most unlikely places... Their research has sparked a revolution in environmental thinking and planning.
February 16, 2009
I haven't read a non-fiction book this inspiring in a few years. It's almost like reading historical fiction ... the innovations of this community in Columbia seem unreal, and the social structure that of fairy tales. I checked this out of the library but just went ahead and bought a copy to keep at hand for times when inspiration is needed. Sometimes books that relate to "sustainable living" seem so contrived to me, I guess the timing was right for this one.
January 26, 2017
"We have to keep dreaming...If you're not dreaming, then you're asleep. The real crisis isn't a lack of resources, it's a lack of inspiration."
Well that was an incredibly well-needed and inspiring read about what kind of sustainable good a community can create with mostly just a shitton of ingenuity and flexibility (and some occasionally well-earned grant money).
Well that was an incredibly well-needed and inspiring read about what kind of sustainable good a community can create with mostly just a shitton of ingenuity and flexibility (and some occasionally well-earned grant money).
November 24, 2014
Life changing... This book helped me to develop my plan for what I want to do with my life and the legacy I'd like to leave.
April 6, 2016
One of my favorite environmental books that I've read. It reinvigorated my hope and passion for protecting the environment in the face of daunting challenges.
July 7, 2020
I don't know why but I was expecting an exuberant polemic on collectivist anarchism. instead this book mostly covers a variety of engineering feats that helped to create a unique village.
An interesting story but one that I feel could better be told in short essay or historical fiction. That being said , Gaviotas is an amazing place and I would love to visit and live in a collectivists eco first community.
An interesting story but one that I feel could better be told in short essay or historical fiction. That being said , Gaviotas is an amazing place and I would love to visit and live in a collectivists eco first community.
December 27, 2019
Read this book to be inspired about how a few people can change the world. This is the story of how a desolated area was revitalized with innovative cutting edge technology and respect for the earth. In the midst of turbulent economic and political challenges, lives were changed and a community was built. So many lessons for all of us!
August 19, 2019
One of the most uplifting non fiction- books I have ever read. It is a story of an intended community. Props to the author for making the villages history flow into a narrative. Shame few people know about this community.
April 18, 2018
Really interesting look at the creation of a very purposeful community from scratch.
August 21, 2019
Really interesting information and gets you thinking. The writing style was not my favorite and it was difficult to keep track of all the characters.
October 10, 2019
Perhaps 3+. Not well written, but a great story.
March 28, 2020
Fantastic book
September 7, 2022
Das Projekt Gaviotas ist sehr interessant, das Buch teilweise etwas langatmig zu lesen. Man verliert auch den Überblick über die vielen Personen, die beschrieben werden.
January 23, 2018
A research station in a columbian savana named Gaviotas is meant to figure out how to live sustainably in what are to be considered uninhabitable locations whilst not destroying the ecosystem. Along the way inventing tons of inventions that can get the necessities for life and many clean power designs, mostly solar and wind.
Gaviotas started in a savanna almost completely devote of any life with no trees and only wild grasses and loose dust as soil, from this over time it gained many people mostly specialists from around the world and students from the university in Bogotá, with a strong engineering team as their main force of progress, over time and once they had created cheap easy fixable designs for water pumps windmills solar panlles they were going to places that needed essentials and installed whatever was needed and taught how to use and fix them to whoever was ready to know how.
Anyone who likes inventions, survival, environmental, political, construction, or clean power, and how all of these interact with each other would like this book.
Gaviotas started in a savanna almost completely devote of any life with no trees and only wild grasses and loose dust as soil, from this over time it gained many people mostly specialists from around the world and students from the university in Bogotá, with a strong engineering team as their main force of progress, over time and once they had created cheap easy fixable designs for water pumps windmills solar panlles they were going to places that needed essentials and installed whatever was needed and taught how to use and fix them to whoever was ready to know how.
Anyone who likes inventions, survival, environmental, political, construction, or clean power, and how all of these interact with each other would like this book.
February 19, 2017
Very inspiring book about sustainable alternative ways of living in our society. The most technical parts related to the technologies developed got me a bit distracted, I preferred the more poetic parts.
Currently reading
June 27, 2007I straight up borrowed this book from Wiley because he said he thought I'd like it. Gaviotas is an intentional community in Columbia whose purpose started out as a partial solution to the population problems in Columbia and partial land/science experiment. One of it's main purpose's in 25+ years that it has been around is to collaborate with scientists, engineers, agronomists, and all kinds in the industrial world to create cheap, environmentally sustainable technology for "third world" countries. This means windmills/water pumps, solar energy for everything (cooking, heating water, etc), and a general practice of using any natural products around them in sustainable ways. Some how all these good earth vibes and creativity created a peaceful human environment as well. Imagine that.
Alright. Check out what they've been up to since they almost succeeded implementing their solar powered everything into Columbia's plan for energy (but they failed cause the country's political climate got even heavier at that exact same time than the past decades of guerilla and faction warfare).
Alright. Check out what they've been up to since they almost succeeded implementing their solar powered everything into Columbia's plan for energy (but they failed cause the country's political climate got even heavier at that exact same time than the past decades of guerilla and faction warfare).
April 22, 2016
Read this for a second time. It has some inspirational parts, but also some parts that make you sad...making it quite the real story! What I got out of it this time was that there were tons of "morals to the story". My idea this year for a beginning of the year test is to write otu the morals I saw and then have them see how those morals apply to what they read. Should be an interesting application of thier knowledge in a way they can use to future experiments.
2016 Reading: again, it's a inspiring tale, though I was glad that having read it before allowed me to read it much more quickly this time. What I got out of this reading most happens at the end of the story. Lagari is looking around, and he begins to talk about the future. His idea of living today in a way that brings about that 'Topia is great. One thing I wish I had more of in my life is the ability to dream. It's what made for their great success. But, like so many, I am caught up in my life now, and I have no time to develop my imagination for what could be. I could never develop a Gaviotas in my mind right now. And for that lack of imagination, I mourn right now.
2016 Reading: again, it's a inspiring tale, though I was glad that having read it before allowed me to read it much more quickly this time. What I got out of this reading most happens at the end of the story. Lagari is looking around, and he begins to talk about the future. His idea of living today in a way that brings about that 'Topia is great. One thing I wish I had more of in my life is the ability to dream. It's what made for their great success. But, like so many, I am caught up in my life now, and I have no time to develop my imagination for what could be. I could never develop a Gaviotas in my mind right now. And for that lack of imagination, I mourn right now.
December 26, 2010
I am glad I overlooked the poor writing style and loose ends and read the entire book because the story is fascinating and instructive. Paolo Laguri decides that starting a settlement in the desolate savannah of Columbia is the answer to the problem of overpopulated cities. I don't agree with the original motivation as I think population control is needed but the community he started and built was truly inspiring. Engineers working on solutions, working with nature and not against it. Rebuilding the forest and multiple solar energy solutions and then applying their creations to help the poor.
December 31, 2016
63rd book for 2016.
I loved Weisman's , which I read earlier in the year.
This book just didn't do it for me. Too long winded, too many people appearing and disappearing for me to feel a real bond to them or the community that they were part of.
Gaviotas is a fascinating place, but Weisman somehow sells it too hard for me to really feel attached to it.
I loved Weisman's , which I read earlier in the year.
This book just didn't do it for me. Too long winded, too many people appearing and disappearing for me to feel a real bond to them or the community that they were part of.
Gaviotas is a fascinating place, but Weisman somehow sells it too hard for me to really feel attached to it.
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