Hi folks!
My name is Henry. I met @noemi briefly at the Open State of Politics Camp in northern Germany and after the camp read her article on the camp. This is how I found out about OpenVillage festival. I caught fire on the spot and was instantly keen on coming. So I dropped Noemi a message and now it’s happening 
A few words on my background:
I’m born 1978 in Dresden, studied Math in Berlin, worked at a fairly large international company in the clinical research industry until I got super fed up by the top down management style and the general ethics in this field. I quit and then worked in Web Development and Graphics Design as a freelancer full time (I started this as a side project when I was studying) and helped developing the campaigning system of campact - one of the larger German NGO’s.
After living abroad in Canada and Australia for a while I got on the natural building train, attended the Earthship Academy in the States and after coming back to Berlin in 2013 founded the Earthship Deutschland Network together with two fellow Earthship Lovers who I happened to meet in Berlin. After one year of networking and another winter down in Australia helping organizing natural building workshops with the Agari Crew I got involved with the build of the first German Earthship at the community Schloss Tempelhof. This is where the idea for the Wir bauen Zukunft project was born amongst participants of the quite amazing building workshop. That was end of 2015. Since I’m heavily involved with the development of the Wir bauen Zukunft project. I still work as a freelance Web Developer and Graphics Designer to rake in the money. Further more I organize and run natural building workshops and seminars together with Lale Rohrbeck under the label down2earth. We also teach at Technical University Berlin.
My favourite topic is relationships. How do humans relate to each other? What is a healthy relationship? What role do dependencies play? From my perspective only through relating to other humans and/or to animals, plants, things we are able to evolve. To relate raises potential for growth in the form of challenge. We are challenged to overcome behavioral patterns through personal change, through lifting unconscious reactions to a conscious level in order make active decisions. Hence to relate is a means to be free. This - I think - is why building communities is so essential to move on from the century of self.
On the festival I’m happy to introduce the Wir bauen Zukunft project. A little rundown on the history of the project, where we at, why we are doing what we’re doing and our vision. It would be a short presentation with Q&A. Let me know if that resonates with you and fits into your program.
Apart from that I would love to host a little workshop on how relationships foster our personal growth, employing the Case Clinic method I learned during a U.Lab Session two years ago. This will give the participants of the workshop the opportunity to learn about the Case Clinic format and about active listening apart from getting a better understanding of the nature of relationships. Let me know if that resonates with you.
Looking forward to get to meet you all and to have a fantastic time at OpenVillage Festival
Much love
Henry
