EcoCity Benin EcoCity Benin Promotes Well Being by Building and Managing Regenerative Habitats

PROJECT ECO-CITY BENIN

Revitalization of Benin culture and its Ecology to inspire Sustainable Living and Self-Reliance

Challenge: Build a replicable EcoCity with the least amount of financial, human, and natural resources.

Vision: At EcoCity Benin we see a world of abundance where human actions revitalize nature and perpetuate harmony and peace.

Location: EcoCity Benin is 2 hectares of land located in Allada in Southern Benin.

In a logic of rethinking and reengineering Ecotourism in Benin and seeking to integrate the know-how and well-being of the local population, EcoCity Benin embarked on the design and engineering of an eco-friendly miniature city. We are building a place where locals, as well as foreigners, could call home, peaceful in its state but futurist in its use of natural resources and engineering technics.

Throughout this project we have been asking ourselves a difficult question: Before the arrival of the French colonizers, how does the local population would like to welcome, interact, and live with tourists and visitors? If the country was not colonized by the West, what would it look like in its relationship with westerners (foreigners), its ecology (environment), its own people, and the planet as a whole? While also seeking to promote the heritage of Benin, its history, and culture, we want to propose a solution that promotes ecological and cultural resistance (resilience).

Years ago Benin people fought the French in physical combat and resisted colonialism. Today, Benin people are fighting mental slavery, western cultural influence, environmental pollution, soil and forest degradation, western consumerism, and brain-drain. What does resistance/resilience looks like today for the people of Benin? What would the French fighter King of Benin, Behanzin would have offered his people as options for a good life, health, and housing?

We wish to propose to visitors and guests, to live with great sophistication in environmentally and culturally integrated hostels.