Brithdir mawr

One of the founders of the community, Emma Orbach, was born in 1955 in the UK. Father is a well-known rich musician; from childhood he taught her music. In her youth, she studied at a private boarding school with two daughters of foreign presidents ^[1] . Then she studied at the University of Oxford with a degree in Chinese ^[1] , where she met her future husband and co-founder of the Brithdir Mawr community, architectural historian Julian Orbach ^[2] . Before the community was created, they first lived in a cottage in the city of Bradford-upon-Avon , then moved to an abandoned house ^[2] . Around 1982, Emma and Julian had an older daughter, in 1984 a son, and in 1988 the youngest daughter; they took the children from school for home schooling ^[2] .

The organization was established in 1993. Founders - Julian Orbach ( Eng. Julian Orbach ), a specialist in the history of architecture, and his wife Emma Orbach ( Emma Orbach ). They began to build a settlement at the foot of Mount Mynydd Carningli ( Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, near the town of Pembrokeshire, Newport ), without receiving permission to build and not publicizing the matter. First, the Orbakhs repaired a dilapidated farmhouse and settled in it with their three children ^[3] .

In 1995, this group of people bought a large plot of land in Pembrokeshire in West Wales with the goal of creating a commune there. On this site there were running water and a generator. They lived there for about five years, when in 1999 the commune broke up. After that, Emma Orbach built herself a dugout and moved there in January 2000. She increasingly wanted unity with nature, so she thereby decided to further separate from the modern benefits of civilization. Moreover, such a lifestyle, in her opinion, causes less damage to nature. The husband and children, unable to withstand such unity with nature, left, and Emma divorced her husband. Already, adult children live in Brighton , London and Bristol , but still sometimes visit their mother.

The lifestyle that Emma Orbach adheres to is quite suitable for her. Waking up in the forest, she admires the beautiful trees; in the evenings, she contemplates the stars and the moon - and this makes her related to nature.

Emma Orbach has special features in her life and lifestyle. If her husband Julian and his children live in ordinary city houses, Emma daily carries bucket of water from a nearby stream, cuts firewood, grows vegetables and contains animals. As of 2013, she had seven chickens, three goats, two horses and two cats. And only in the evening she can afford to return to her home. And only sometimes can she afford to go to nearby stores and buy herself, for example, chocolate.

Orbach lives in rather harsh conditions, without electricity and running water. She has no lighting, no TV, no radio, no sink, no toilet. The walls of the dugout are made of straw, covered with stucco based on horse droppings (!). Thanks to him, the walls of the dugout are smooth. And she chose the dugout only because she wants to cause the Earth as little damage as possible. The smell inside the dugout lets you know the best, so children and other people rarely visit her, and if they visit, they try to leave her as soon as possible.

The toilet is located in a small clearing below, where mowed grass, sawdust and human waste go. It all turns into compost. According to her views, "sewage is a way not to be responsible for their waste." The bath is also located outside the dugout. And Emma set the bath so that it was possible to light a fire under it. She is washed in a nearby stream, and takes a bath once a month. She just fills the bathtub with water, makes a fire under it and waits about two hours for the bathtub to heat up. Sometimes she is washed one or two times in a river, if she feels that she is a mile away from her.

Since she does not have electricity, she does not have any household appliances or electronics. She also cannot charge a mobile phone. And this is another reason her children rarely visit her. But Emma understands her children that “young people do not want to live without electricity” ^[4] .

• Emma Orbach's respect for everything natural is such that she treats horse droppings better than, for example, aftershave lotion. She says: "Everything that is of natural origin does not bother me, but people inflict all kinds of abominations on themselves."
• The reason for Emma Orbach’s life outside the benefits of civilization is precisely with respect for nature and earthly things, and not with strict parenting or protesting against the vices and abominations of civilization. “Today everything in my life makes me happy. Waking up in the forest, looking at beautiful trees, seeing the stars and the moon - all this makes me truly close to the natural world, ”says Emma.
• Emma Orbach must pay a municipal tax for her home. Emma pays 60 euros each week as a municipal tax.

In the winter of 1997-1998, the most famous community building was erected - “This Round House” ( English That Roundhouse ) -: a round building with an earthen roof. It was built by Tony Wrench , Jane Faith, who developed his project, and several others ^[5] who participated in the “labor exchange” system in their permaculture group.

The round house was built mainly from locally available natural materials, including wood, which the settlers entirely procured themselves. The frame is made of Menzies pseudo- tsugu , lined with clayey . A similar construction technology was widely used by the first European immigrants in North America. The roof is a self - supporting (resiprocal) structure ( eng. Reciprocal frame ), which does not require the installation of supports inside the building. The green roof is planted with grapes and other local productive plants; Under the soil layer there is a pond film ( English pond liner ), which provides waterproofing, and under it - straw thermal insulation. The cost of building such a round house with a diameter of 10 meters was reportedly only about 3,000 pounds ^{[5] [6]} .

The round house project is based on the principles of permaculture: use local resources as much as possible to satisfy needs without producing environmental pollution; work together with nature, not against nature.

A wooden tent, a wood-burning warehouse and a workshop were also erected.

In 1998, the community had 12 adults and 10 children, most of them vegetarians. They lived there permanently or most of the time, they themselves grew food for themselves ^[3] . In the same year, this settlement, which then had five thatched houses and one wooden geodesic dome, was discovered by aerial photography. The authorities charged the settlers with fourteen violations of building codes, including the illegal construction of a pond and the illegal construction of a round house, a round canopy and a dome ^[3] , and threatened to demolish the illegal buildings ^[5] . Almost all of these structures managed to be legalized in one way or another - except for “This round house”, which had a long history of litigation, and a canopy that remained without a building permit ^[7] .

Around 2001, the community’s land was divided into three parts. The land around This Round House has been transferred to the Roundhouse Trust . Julian Orbach left for the city, but remained the owner of about 80 acres of land, including land under an old farmhouse and outbuildings. This land was leased to them by another organization - Brithdir Mawr Housing Co-op . The rest of the land passed to Emma Orbach; she called it “Tir Ysbrydol” (spiritual land) and set about obtaining permits and approvals for existing and new thatched huts and outbuildings ^[8] .

In 2008, it was finally possible to retroactively obtain permission to build “This Round House” ^[5] .

In 2015, Emma Orbach starred in one of the episodes of the television series “Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild” .

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