1. Et kreativt brændpunkt i Mern Fra rensningsanlæg til kreativt socialt center

2. Vision: To reconstruct Mern´s rensingsanlæg into a creative humane centre which has as aim the promotion and activation of creative, social and (inter-) learning activities, to the benefit of people in not just Mern, but in the whole of Sydsjælland. Objectives: 1) Åndehullet´s purpose is to promote and offer a great versatility of high class creative activities in the form of lectures, workshops and courses in the areas of craftmanship, art, music, design, writing, theatre, dance and more by specialists in the field to people interested of all ages, from young to old. 2) Åndehullet´s purpose is to create a bridge between generations, where the skills and experiences of the older generation can be offered to the younger generation, and where the love for learning and new experience in the younger generation can be an inspiration and a feeling of usefulness to the older generation. 3) Åndehullet´s purpose is to facilitate a place of meeting and mixing to people in Mern. 4) Åndehullet’s purpose is to create and facilitate a place of recreation and respiration in a natural and peaceful environment. 5) Åndehullet´s purpose is to be a futuristic centre for new think seminars and humanistic events. 6) Åndehullet´s purpose is to be financially self-generative and sustaining. 7) Åndehullet´s aim is to make Mern a more attractive and inspiring village to be and live in, and to attract people from outside to it. Vision and Objectives

3. Objective one: To promote and offer a great versatility of high class creative activities in the form of lectures, workshops and courses in the areas of craftmanship, art, music, design, writing, theatre, dance and more by specialists in the field to people interested of all ages, from young to old. 1) Village project Aabakkehuse has within it´s network acces to some 50 creative national and inter-national teachers and lecturers of high caliber with expertise in some the following creative fields: a)Music: Song writing, singing lessons, choir, piano lessons, trumpet lessons, violin lessons, composing and musical composition, ”babysang”, musical bands. b)Art and Design: Architecture, garden design, design, classical painting techniques in portrait, trompe lóeil, still life and landscape painting, abstract painting, perspective drawing, model drawing, marbling and wood imitation, sowing clothes, caligraphy, paper clip art, workshops about the influence of colour, lectures on the influence of beauty and art. c)Craftmanship: Woodwork and wood sculpture, furniture, straw bale house building techniques. d)Theatre and dance: Belly dancing, electrobix (a kind of Tai Chi), e)Writing workshops For more information please see the added list of C.V.´s of people wanting to contribute in this way to Åndehullet. 2) Other creative activities: Generated by people in Mern and surroundings that want to partake, others attracted by Åndehullet on a national and international basis, evening school activities, where evening schools such as L.O.F. Vordingborg can rent Åndehullet´s facilities. Focus: creative activities not in competition with evening schools and ungdomskoler in the surroundings. 3) Finances / prices: All creative activities should not cost more than regular evening school prices and for the prices should be kept down to an absolute minimum for the youth to create maximum accessibility. Objective one: ideas

4. Objective two: Ideas Objective two: To create a bridge between generations, where the skills and experiences of the older generation can be offered to the younger generation, and where the love for learning and new experience in the younger generation can be an inspiration and a feeling of being useful to the older generation. 1) And this can be anyone, from a retired carpenter in Mern who loves to pass on woodwork skills, to a local farmer telling about how to grow a vegetable garden after which the youth can work in the vegetable garden on the ground of Åndehullet, to a nurse talking about first aid. 2) A monthly youth activitiy with occasional presentations to the public, yearly youth camp events. Some people in Åbakkehuse are the founders of ”Den Blå Paraplu”, a youth organisation that organized in 2010 a ten day international youth event on the grounds of Åbakkehuse, in which 50 younsters in the age from 13 to 25 were involved. The event was sponsored by the E.U. and exampled by the E.U. as a highly succesful event. 3) Story telling evenings where older people tell about the miracles in their life to a younger audience and what they learned from it. 4) Seminars and think tanks for teachers about questions that concern education and working with young people in these times, headed up by experts in the field. 5) Occasional sports / nature walk activities for the local youth.

5. Objective three: to facilitate a place of meeting and mixing to people in Mern. 1)A cafe that will be opened initially one or two days a week (weekend) which houses an art exhibition. 2)Evenings in the cafe with music performances and bands that are not main stream and as such not in competition with Multicum. A writer telling about his latest book, to an astrologer doing a reading about the year to come. 3)Showing a film on big screen so once in a while if possible (needs research) 4)Renting it out to people in Mern and surroundings for birthday parties, marriages and so forth 5)Billiard evenings / a chess club afternoon… 6)Yearly gatherings in Mern such as Sankt Hans, grill days and so forth that can go on in the cafe. 7)A swimming bassin open in the summer. Objective three: ideas

6. Objective four: Ideas Objective Four: to create and facilitate a place of recreation and respiration in a natural and peaceful environment. 1)Åndehullet will be a natural addition and extension to the already existing ”Sundhedsstien” in Mern, and will therefore attract more people to go out for a walk. Mern has not many possibilities of accessing nature by foot, and ”Sundhedsstien” is a project that promotes this. 2)On the grounds of Åndehullet a vegetable and herb garden could be created in which children and youngsters of Mern could learn how to grow food and even bring some food home! 3)A small animal garden could be part of the place with a few rabbits, goats, chickens, pheasants, peacocks, swans, ducks and pitchens where children in the neighboorhood, under supervision, can learn about taking care of animals. Eventually older youngsters could get a more responsible function in this and ”run it”. The animal garden will be an extra attraction for people to come to the place. 4)There are plans for creating a well being and peace garden, that could become an extension of the Åndehullet project (see added drawings) 5)Along the ”sundhedsstien” a ”balhytte” and ” work out” equipment are planned to be placed. 6)Creating an environment like this will make Åndehullet a place that can easily be rented out to private people (parties and celebrations) and businesses, wanting to do team building or trainings. In the latter case, team building and training events can even be offered and / or facilitated by two highly experienced international team building and coaching experts living in Åbakkehuse. 7)Part of the ”respiration” could be meditation and yoga events, stress management and so forth. A profesional trained nurse lives in Aabakkehuse and he works with healing and gives well-being treatments. 8)A swimming bassin open in the summer.

7. Objective five: Ideas Objective five: To be a futuristic centre for new think seminars and humanistic events. 1)Åndehullet could be rented out as a course and seminar facility to businesses, especially during week days, using part of the facility or the whole facility. A website could be made for this to PR and market this. The aim would be to make good income with this that can be used to grow and finance the project. 2)Aabakkehuse has hosted several international events and will continue to do so. To mention some in the last three years: An international gathering focussing on humanity and the understanding of gender, an international youth camp supported by the EU, an international ecology seminar. For 2012 already two international events are scheduled to go on in aabakkehuse, and more are in the planning. Aabakkehuse could rent facilies from Åndehullet where it fits in the calendar.

8. Objective six: Questions Objective six: to be financially self-generative and sustaining. 1)The first question is: What would ”Rensningsanlæget” cost? If it would cost Vordingborg commune perhaps two to three million to pull it down, could some of these costs be used to renovate the place or be withdrawn from the market sales price? 2)What would it cost to renovate the place to agreeable standards? 3)What funds can be attracted to finance it? 4)What would the estimated yearly running costs for the place be? 5)What would PR and marketing cost? 6)Although it might need lots of volunteering work in the start, it needs eventually someone to run the place and this includes wages. Such a person (people) would need to have the following skills: a)To be a good project manager b)Administrative qualities c)Being able to run a cafe d)Keeping the facilities clean e)Being able to do small repair work f)Being good at PR, marketing and networking g)Being able to make attractive PR materials h)Have a good sense for interior design and decoration i)Having good social skills j)Burn for the project k)Speak and write Danish and English, prefarably more languages 7) What do the incomes need to be on a yearly basis for the project to be able to run? 8) If ”rensningsanæget” can be bought, when would that be and how long would it take to rebuild it? 9) Who owns the place?

9. Objective seven: Considerations Objective seven: to make Mern a more attractive and inspiring village to be and live in, and to attract people from outside to it. 1)Mern is a village situated amongst fields with no direct forest or lakes connected to it. On foot it has not been easy to come out in nature, but the ”sundhedsstien” has changed this. Yet, a lot more can be done to make Mern a more attractive place, and any small or big improvement will have an effect on the village collective. Åndehullet is such a project. 2)The more people in mern are involved in these improvements, the more it will give a collective feeling that things can be changed and can be improved. This causes stature and proudness as an overall radiation, and this will call for further improvements, individually and collectively ( Recently bestsellers like ”the Tipping Point” explain this phenomenon). 3)A natural blooming place will therefore attract more people. In a time where more and more people are moving from the countryside to the bigger towns, Mern could become an exampleship of how this can be turned. 4)Many people who lived in Mern their whole life, have not always contact with ”newcomers” and the other way around this counts as well. Åndehullet can become a place where many can meet in a great versatility of activities, not just bridging the gap between generations, but also between individuals. This causes a greater feeling of togetherness, teamship and humanity, and places where this happens there will be more intersupport and less loneliness. It gives a feeling of belonging. 5)Due to the ongoing and expected worsening finance crisis, the coming times will become more and more difficult with less money available for social and health care. In an atmosphere of teamship more voluntairy work will be done, and people are naturally cared for. Investing in a project such as Åndehullet could eventually become a money saver in the long run. When people have the ability to stay fit, physically, mentallly and emotionally, social costs and health cost go down. 6)Inspired people cause inspiration. And this gives energy surplus, a feeling of life being special and a feeling of much more can be done. It is envisioned for Åndehullet to become such a place. A place that also attracts people from outside Mern, that lodge their inspiration in Mern and the people living here. 7)Åndehullet could therefore become a project that many other institutions, projects, schools and so forth might like to visit and spend time in. Here in Mern it could be, as an example, a great asset to Multicum.

10. Design ideas ”Jeg valgte at bygge et dome-hus, fordi det opfylder alle disse krav bedre end et traditionelt hus. En kuppel har f.eks. 25 % mindre overflade end et firkantet hus med sadeltag. Det betyder bl.a. 25 % mindre varmetab, betydeligt mindre energiforbrug til opvarmning og afkøling og et mindre materialeforbrug. En Monolithic kuppel er fød uden kuldebroer, er bomstærk og kræver minimal vedligeholdelse. Levetiden er flere hundrede år." Kan man komme til at se Dome-huset live? Faktisk er der to dome-huse her i Esbjerg (som de eneste i Vesteuropa). Domehuset kan besøges efter aftale. Bare send en mail på: hans.vandersman@webspeed.dk. En Monolithic Dome er en kuppelformet bygning. Faktisk kan en Monolithic Dome være alt fra en halv kugle til et æg, bare ikke firkantet! En kuppel kan bygges fra 3m til 300m i diameter uden søjler eller bærende skillevæge. Konceptet er opfundet af Brødre South i USA i begyndelsen af halvfjerdserne, og på hjemmesiden www.monolithic.com kan man se mange eksempler på dome- huse/bygninger.