by Max Lindegger

From the Cape Town area, travelling north via the famous grape-growing areas around Stellenbosch through extensive, undulating wheat fields brings one to the coast at Plettenburg Bay. Kuthumba eco-village is located only half an hour inland in a wonderful, generally unspoilt rural area.

Patti's wattle & daub thatched "barn" house will eventually be Kuthumba's community house. Traditional skills were used, the render is cow dung.

Kuthumba is a settlement developed by Patti Ovenstone over the last four years. Her persistence has finally paid off and approvals have been received, roads built, water, electricity and phone lines installed. The first settlers are building houses, and a community.Many aspects of Kuthumba are similar to the structure used at Crystal Waters and Kookaburra Park insofar as there is a mixture of private and common ownership with an administrative body managing day to day affairs. As a designer I find it delightful to exchange experiences and expectations with like minded people who can understand and appreciate the processes involved in taking a dream to reality.

Patti is by no means the only person interested in ecological aspects in her region. Some wish for eco-villages specifically, while others are searching for a planning and design process which allows for a modest increase in population and would permit farmers to earn some income from the sale of poorer land without destroying the beauty and integrity of the landscape. All seem to be passionate about the retention and expansion of the native fynbos vegetation.