Mini-EDE Hungary: Ecovillage Design & Community Building
Programme Overview
Type: Face to Face (5 days)
Date: Aug 3rd - Aug 8th 2025
Residential: Optional
Facilitation: Taisa Mattos & guest trainers
Language: English
Certificate: Yes
Location: Nyim Eco Community, Hungary
Organised by:
In partnership with:
Ecovillage Design Education programmes, often referred to as ‘EDEs’, provide participants of all ages with the knowledge and practical skills to design communities, projects and organisations with stronger social systems, greater efficiency and healthier environments.
The EDE course equips you with skills and knowledge you will be able to put into action in any field or sector you are involved with. It also connects you to a global network of change agents and sustainability designers, people who are taking active roles in transitioning their existing communities, institutions and neighborhoods, as well as leading more joyful and meaningful lives.
For many people, it is not possible to take time off from work/family/school for a four-week immersive EDE programme. Our new mini-EDEs offer the possibility of experiencing the taste of a full EDE, maintaining the core values and following the 4D Framework, but in a shorter version.
The course is based on the four core dimensions of Gaia Education’s Ecovillage Design Curriculum: the Social, Worldview, Ecological and Economic dimensions of sustainability. The Curriculum was developed drawing on the experience and expertise developed throughout a network of some of the most successful ecovillages and transition settings around the world.
During the Mini-EDE in Hungary: Ecovillage Design & Community Building Course, we will dive into each of the core dimensions for one day, led by experienced facilitators in their fields and special guests.
*The course will be taught in English.
Course Schedule
What You Will Receive?
- Gaia Education Curriculum (digital)
- Certificate of Completion
- Gaia Education Discounts in all online programmes
Facilitators
Taisa Mattos
Taisa Mattos - Gaia Education Face-to-Face Programmes Coordinator and Gaia Schools Coordinator – is deeply passionate about Ecovillages and regenerative education. With 16 years of experience coordinating and teaching Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) programs, she has contributed to over 30 certified programs in Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Argentina, and online. Taisa has also served as the lead facilitator for Gaia Education's Training of Trainers (ToT) in Mexico and as a guest trainer for the ToT in Ukraine.
Between 2019 and 2023, Taisa served as the Education & Research Coordinator at the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN International). During this time, she was also an active member of the GEN Leadership Circle and the Network Steward Circle, while taking on roles as Networking Lead, project manager, trainer, and consultant.
Taisa is the author of the book Ecovillages: Building a Regenerative Culture. She holds a Master's degree in Communities and Social Ecology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and a Bachelor's degree in Social Communications from the same institution.
Board member of the International Communal Studies Association (ICSA) and Co-founder of Terra Una Ecovillage (MG-Brazil). Taisa is Brazilian and works globally as a trainer, lecturer, and consultant in the fields of sustainability, regenerative education, community building , and social innovations.
Daniel Zimmermann
Daniel Zimmermann - ecologist, mental health counsellor, and community facilitator - is one of the starter members of Nyim Eco-community, and lives there with his wife Fanni. He was delegated from Hungary to GEN for 10 years and volunteered for GEN in 2011 and 2012. During those years he completed the full PDC and EDE programmes. He gives talks about permaculture, edible herbs, ecovillages, and community living.
Kristina Pásztor
Krisztina Pásztor met the Way of Council in 2013 and has been experimenting with the ways it can bring peace, connection, understanding and change to communities and relationships ever since. She’s facilitated circles in intentional communities and groups, companies and schools, learning processes and more. Her other passion is to create spaces and processes where one can experience themselves as an intrinsic and inseparable part of the living being we call Earth and all of its inhabitants, and the sense of belonging. She is a Way of Council Facilitator, a Forest Bathing Guide and the facilitator of various nature based practices.
Fanni Sall
Fanni Sall is an artist and a member of Nyim Eco Community for more than 10 years, with her husband, Daniel. Their little grove will be one of the venues during the training, where the trees grow naturally and undisturbed. Fanni gained experience in non-formal education, mentoring, and regenerative practices.
She focuses on learning Way of Council facilitation, she discovered council intentions as her artistic guidelines. As an artist she explores the connection between attachment to places, ecological regeneration and inner work.
Venue
The Course will be hosted at Nyim Eco Community, in Hungary.
Nyim Eco Community, or as it was called at the beginning “Ecovillage sprout” was founded at 2010 with the intention of creating an ecovillage. The community can be found in the small village of Nyim, 15 km South from Lake Balaton. It consists of 10 adults, and 6 children. The community aims to explore an ecologically, socially and economically balanced way of living, and owns 26 ha land, where the members have planted more than 5000 trees, and conducted various nature regeneration projects. The community is connected to GEN Europe since its initiation.
photo: Judit Ruprecht
Partners
This programme is co-organised by Mindenegyüttmegy Association (Hungary)
Mindenegyüttmegy Association
The Mindenegyüttmegy (Everything-goes-together) Association was founded in 2017, but we started our real activities in 2015 with the organization of the first “Gyüttment” Festival (in English: Movers Festival). This festival is for those who plan to change their lifestyle to an ecological one, choose environmentally friendly lives and values, and share their knowledge and experiences with each other. The name “Mindenegyüttmegy” in English means: “everything goes together”. This has multiple interpretations, it means "all one" and also "everyone goes together." For us, this means that the current ecological, social and economic crises can only be solved together through a paradigm- and lifestyle-shift, for example by living in harmony with the environment, building communities, and developing our relationships with others and ourselves.
Now we are one of the members of Global Ecovillage Network-Europe (GEN-Europe), as a national network named “GEN Hungary” with two other partners: Nyim Eco Community and Szatyor Association. This year we are honored to host the European Ecovillage Gathering, which will be held from August 12 to 17, 2025 at Manas Garden, Hungary right after this course.
More information about the Association: http://megyesulet.hu/
Gyüttment Gathering: https://gyuttmentfesztival.hu/english/
European Ecovillage Gathering 2025: https://ecovillagegathering.org/
Registration
Payments
Please ensure payment for Course Fees and Accommodation (optional) are made in order to secure your place.
Course Fee
400 EUR Regular Price
360 EUR Early Bird (Until June 15th)
320 EUR Eastern Europe**
*Prices per person for 5 days of course training.
**We’re offering a special discounted rate for participants from Eastern Europe.
If this applies to you, please contact taisa.mattos@gaiaeducation.org to receive the registration link.
Accommodation & Food
Community room 140 EUR
Yurt 120 EUR
Own Tent 70 EUR
*Prices per person with food included (3 vegetarian meals a day).
More Information
Please fill this short form and we will contact you to support making the decision if this programme is suitable for you.