Traditional crafts and skills are alive and well in the Cyprus community of Kato Drys. Here the local community are making traditional local products for sale which have real integrity and a true sense of place. All of these products and processes rely on the 4 pillars of sustainability, Cultural, Social, Environmental and Economic.
This week long structured course looks at these traditional skills and products and considers why they have importance in our contemporary world. Participants will create a wall mural in Kato Drys.
During our first trip to the hills around Lefkara, to see ancient olive grows with trees of around 1000 years old or more, it soon became evident that Cyprus, like the UK, is a prosperous country with an aspiring and educated population that no longer want to continue working on the land when they […]
Encouraging property developers to provide such high quality accommodation is a deliberate policy with the Community Council so as to encourage visitors to stay in the village proper. This formed part of a strategy to create a ‘critical mass’ in terms of population – both transient and resident. At the time of visiting, the village had no local shop and all groceries had to be brought in by personal transport from other locations. Previous attempts had been made to establish a local shop, but the effects of recession and the austerity measures applied to deal with it made it difficult for local people to meet the cost of renting small business premises. Therefore, to ensure the sustainability and growth of the village an effective increase in the population needs to be achieved in order to allow new shops and businesses to be effective and sustainable within the community.