We’re Building Green in Montenegro
We are a British couple who intend to build the first family house in Montenegro designed to German Passiv-Haus standards.
We have spent many years in the Western Balkans. Although recently James has been in the diplomatic world, his background and most of his career is industrial and commercial. Similarly, Anke’s former business was at the high-tech end of aerospace and similar industries, though while being in the Balkans through her voluntary work with various NGOs she has become a social entrepreneur.
With life-long interests in the environment and ecology, we are seizing this opportunity not only to build a house for ourselves and our extended families, but also as a demonstration for Montenegrins of what is possible, practical and economic while being at the forefront of sound environmental practice.
NEWS: WE ARE FINALLY BUILDING!! See the progress on The Build in Photos
Panoramic view of the mountains on the eastern side of Risan – sorry about the ‘bend’ but the photo spans 180º
This site is a Work-In-Progress, describing the overall aims of our project, which is not just to build a family home for ourselves, but to help and encourage others in this beautiful country to design, build and live in equally low-energy houses.
We have a section for the Technical aspects for all the design features relating to energy and water saving. There is a sub-page specifying what we are looking for.
We also have a section on Risan and its neighbourhood, to give you some idea of just how special and beautiful this part of the world is.
For a general background on our project, we suggest you read Anke’s blog which she started in mid 2007. There is also a Sort of a Diary page on this site which meanders along giving some key events, with a sub-page about the tortoises on the site.
Because of our activities, we have been asked to join a group aiming to establish a Green Building Council for Montenegro. The rest of this group nominated James to be the Chairman – not something he was seeking, but now he’s landed with the task, intends to see it through as efficiently as possible.