[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":9},["ShallowReactive",2],{"person-bio-marnix-van-suylekom":3},{"bio":4},[5,6,7,8],"Marnix van Suylekom has more than ten years of experience in design, construction and engineering, from draining swamps in the Caribbean to building homes in the rainforest. During the early Covid period he started the Free Commune as a plan B for a free and respectful place to live, and moved to Galicia, Spain with his family to lead it.","Free Commune is a community development in an abandoned village in Galicia (one of the most overlooked regions of Europe) offering freedom, independence and real community close to home.","The village he took on had been empty for decades, in one of the least populated parts of Spain, and the work has been literal: water, electricity, internet and road access first, then bringing houses up to a standard people will live in year-round. A small number of permanent residents live there now.","The longer plan is an economy rather than a settlement, with an apple orchard and a chestnut grove planted for commercial use, and the village has kept its old patron saint festival going. His argument for Galicia is unglamorous: land is cheap, the bureaucracy is distant, and Europe has thousands of abandoned villages somebody could do this with.",1788062491002]