A new project called Český Ostrovní dům or Czech Island House seeks to raise awareness of self-sustainable living in the Czech Republic.

"We launched this competition at the Czech Technical University. I just came there with a crazy idea; let’s make students think about off-grid buildings. It surprised me how excited the leadership of the university was. We launched the competition together and we got like 80 students in the first year. It surprised everyone in the project how many students were interested and how many projects we received and actually how good the projects were. ...None of the student projects is going to be built, but we picked the best students and put them into a team that is creating a completely new building, regulated by the government, build on the land that we own", says Pavel Podruh, the man behind the project in an interview for Radio Praha.

“We are building two off-grid apartments, but separate buildings on one piece of land and we will be running them as a try-out. You want to see how an off-grid building works, just come; it’s very cheap and on a beautiful piece of land, close to the Šumava range. It could be good for family vacation to try out and see that it’s not really that different from what you’re used to.”

Read full interview..