The Äerdschëff project will use innovative and sustainable construction methods and materials Cell/Facebook

The Äerdschëff project will use innovative and sustainable construction methods and materials Cell/Facebook

The project is being led by community and sustainability group Cell and aims to showcase alternative sustainable construction methods as well as enable people using the space to live autonomously.

Posting on their Facebook page on Tuesday, the Earthship team announced that “after months of uncertainty, all permissions were finally granted and the team is expecting to get the construction site in Redange/Attert started in about two months.”

Project team member Rodrigo Vergara told Delano on Wednesday: “The team and I are very chuffed to finally get on with the project, after such a long time waiting for responses from the administrations. We had to modify our design slightly to compromise to the legal frameworks but are happy with the outcome.”

Launched in 2015 by Cell founder Katy Fox, it is backed by rural development agency Leader, Oeuvre and the Kyoto Fund. Designs have already been finalised for what will be a public education centre which will house two European Volunteer Service volunteers.

Cell will construct the building with the support of volunteers. “We would love to work with local as well as international volunteers during the construction period where we can pass on some of the skills to build an Äerdschëff. We are expecting to be able to build with volunteers around June-July, starting with the tyre wall and moving on to things like carpentry, bottle brick walls, botanical cell etc”, Vergara said.

People interested in joining in can attend the informal newcomers event at 6:30pm on 5 April at the Centre d’Information Tiers Monde (Citim), 55 avenue de la Liberté, Luxembourg-Gare.