About us
Claude Lewenz, the author of the book, How to Build a Village, and the core team of Parallel Villages Ltd live in New Zealand.
The Auckland region parallel village is to be built by a Village Organising Company (VOC) established to build the Auckland Region parallel village. Unlike a developer, whose brief is to return a profit to its investors by securing and selling a development, a VOC brief also includes what planners call "effects"... it concerns itself with the social, economic, cultural and environmental effects of its development on the people and communities who will live there, and on the surrounding region and environment.
"Effects" is a grey word. Given colour, it seeks to create a wonderful place to live, a 10,000 population village where all have the opportunity do well, lifelong - regardless of their financial aspirations. And by all, this refers not to a social elite, but a wide cross section of society (one reason the village has an Industrial Park, for example, to provide jobs for blue collar workers who actually make things). It seeks this wonderful place to become a model for other development, that conventional developers see the parallel village model as good business. One may expect the first villages will become major visitor destinations, especially among the professions related to real estate development, and to expect the first to establish training schools, so the good ideas can be spread and those parts that did not work so well serve as skinned-knee lessons.
Let there be no doubt, a project of this scale and character will be profitable, and the VOC has an obligation to its investors to realise a profit through better design and smarter processes. It creates a higher quality product, a life style for which many people yearn. It pays strong attention to cutting out the inefficiencies and waste that characterises the building industry. Through rapid approval & build, it reduces risk by limiting the period of financial exposure from years to months. Because the buyers must be involved from the beginning, it increases certainty the homes will be sold.
In the process, it develops a habitat that gives the buyers a lower cost of living as well as a higher quality of life. It is the epitome of win-win. Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of the village developers is another fact: All those involved want to live in a parallel village; to grow old in a parallel village; to visit other parallel villages. It's personal.
About the VOC
A Village Organising Company (VOC) is set up for each village project. At the end of that project, if it is appropriate under law, that company morphs into the Village Corporation that is collectively owned by the villagers. During the development period, the VOC functions like a developer, only with many additional responsibilities. For example, it concerns itself with assuring a thriving, robust and durable local economy is established, that the village is culturally and socially enriched, and that it provides a safe and secure habitat for all ages and stages of life.
The VOC provides the following functions:
- Identifies the region - in this case, within 2 hours of Auckland Airport, hence VOC-AKL
- Identifies the jurisdiction - this requires support and welcome from that local council
- Works with the Village Forum to identify the founding villagers, who engage in its design
- Runs dynamic engagement to secure plan change, resource consents & subdivision
- When approval is secured from the Council, the conditional land is purchased
- Designs the prototype master building consents
- Establishes the Village Building Company
- Oversees the village construction
- Sells the buildings to the villagers, including a voting share in their Village Corporation
The VOC begins when its parent company, Parallel Villages Ltd, a New Zealand based and globally-focused company, identifies both significant interest and a strong business basis to develop a parallel village in a particular country. Usually this comes about because a person or group from that country has come forward and presented a good case. At present there are active initiatives in Australia and Austria (Europe), and tentative initiatives in England and the USA.
From that a dialogue begins, where people begin to consider the idea. Usually they buy the book, How to Build a Village that enables people to understand that paradigm shifting approach - it's not tweaking the existing system, and it is helpful to read the book first to understand how the fundamentals and the infrastructure are changed, and how the many details fit together.
A budget is then set up in three parts
- About $2 million dollars to establish a clear business plan, which includes hiring principle staff. This comes from visionaries who believe in the value of parallel villages.
- About $35 million for the VOC to run the project. This comes from investors based on the business plan.
- About $.75 to 1.5 billion is require to complete the project. This comes from the buyers, through conventional or preferred-vendor financing.
In stage one, we are a group of perhaps ten people
In stage two, we are several businesses - the developer and the builder
In stage three, we are 10,000 villagers, with about 4,000 heads of household on average
