Moneca Kaiser
Username
Moneca Kaiser
Proposer First Name
Moneca
Proposer Email
moneca@mkdb.ca
Proposer Last Name
Kaiser
Boston 2021 Areas of Focus
Proposer Company/Organization
Moneca Kaiser Design Build
Proposer Phone
(613) 400-2448
Proposer Job Title
CEO Home Ecologist
Proposer Additional Info
I have been involved with Yestermorrow Design Build school as a student and educator for many years and loved being a member of NESEA's Building Better Bottom Lines Community. I have a background in eastern philosophy and have been making homes for over 25 years with my company - Moneca Kaiser Design Build.
Proposed Session Description
HomeEcology is a philosophy of Home Design founded on our interdependence and connection to each other . By understanding our homes as an ecosystem that needs to harmoniously integrate with our community and world, our Home MAKING Journey acts as a rite of passage to a kinder and wiser life and consciousness.
Paths of wisdom are illuminated by self knowledge. By examining our values and aligning each decision with them, our homes and lives are infused with meaning and breed contentment. On a practical level HomeEcology challenges us to have every element of our homes pass the WHY test which creates wise, satiating homes infused with meaning.
There is an alchemy and art to co-creating such a home and it takes a village. The attunement, wisdom, cooperation and yes, love, required is life transforming. Thus HomeEcology awakens our innate wish for each to have such a nurturing home and builds the community and clarity around cultivating this. It allows our innate need for shelter to meet a deeper need to offer up a lasting legacy and caring is revealed as our true source of shelter rather than mere sticks and stones.
This philosophy was founded by Moneca to align her Budhist sensibilities with an industry invested in our discontent so we continue to want more … bigger… tinier... better… greener … and reminds us that home is truly where the heart is and our homes ‘become the change we wish to see in our world’.
Diversity and Inclusiveness
Harmony is my life's thesis. I have been shown great kindness and been surrounded by wisdom and my deepest hope is to share something of beauty and truth with our world.
I am entirely motivated by relationships. I view business as an opportunity to cultivate meaningful relationships.
When business is providing exponential value to those we serve we get to creative time together and our professional relationships are sustainable.
I live in faith that I will be able to continue working with the people I love and respect because the business we co-create provides with abundant generosity and positively transforms the world through example and experience of spaces we've created.
In the West where we’re pretty comfortable from a material standpoint, wanting can become an insatiable thirst with stuff at best a fleeting happiness. When I seek what is true and intrinsically of value in this ocean of want, it’s the desire to have a home, and for this home to be a place of nourishment that fortifies us and enables us to give more to our world. Such a home must arise from harmonious design and be built to last with materials that are healthy for us and the planet.
As a woman in a male dominated field, drawing on my honourable legacy as a home maker I feel I have a unique perspective and contribution to make and would be honoured to do so.
Learning Objectives
To understand the philosophy of HomeEcology and how it might elevate their eco effectiveness and why. This will allow participants to infuse their own work with meaning and invite their clients to do so as well.
To appreciate that intention is jet fuel so lets be intentional about it. Participants will be encouraged to create a mission statement that reflects their commitment to this deeper conversation.
To discover where and how they are already practicing these principles. Bringing this to light will automatically amplify it, this session aims further more to legitimize the conversation that we can be a bit sheepish about.
To discover and articulate new ways to further this conversation. Participants will acquire new tools and resources gleamed from the mind of the hive.
Has this session been presented before?
No
Target Audiences Level of Expertise
Level 1 - No prior knowledge needed.
Session Format Details
1.Warm welcome and brief intro into HomeEcology and WHY aligning our life & homes with our values matters. This will be a visual slide presentation that is evocative and stimulating to wet the appetite for the world cafe. (20 mins)
2. Break out into groups of 4 or 5 participants to have a 20 min discussion about how they already infuse this conversation into their work and how and why they might like to amplify and illuminate it. Ideally the groups would have a shared white board to contribute to or paper covered cafe tables to write and draw on. Groups self-moderate and choose a spokesperson to share their insights with the broader community in any form they choose. (20 mins )
3. Hearing from each group (20 - 30 mins)
4. Conclusion Q and A that can be directed to any participant not only the presenter (20 mins )
Recommended Length
90-minute session
Strongest Content Connection - Boston 2021
Anything else you'd like to tell us about your session proposal?
I would be so honoured to present this passion to our community. I humbly accept any guidance of directives you might share to ensure it meets our communities needs and heart. I have been studying this subject for decades, conducting extensive research and the book on HomeEcology is almost finished. I will put my whole heart and wisdom into it in hope of offering up something meaningful to our community.
Reviewer 1
Horowitz, Stephanie
Proposal #
162
Committee Decision
Rejected
Full Description
Everyone needs a home. There is a huge opportunity to cultivate meaning but it is being left on the table. How can we be making our homes, one of the most significant investments of our lives, without having this deeper conversation? This deeper conversation is integral to healing the planet. Together lets explore our deeper needs for connection, meaning, attunement, generosity and divert this stream of consumerism and yes, greed - towards something richer.
We need to shift culture and awaken our hearts to heal the planet. This session explores how to use our work designing and building to facilitate a more meaningful experience and outcome.
What matters, what is lasting and enduring what is worthy of saving and savouring all comes back to WHY - intention is everything. Answering why will keep our houses out of our landfills.
It’s not enough to build The Great Green House - we need homes infused with meaning and aligned with our values, to act as living monuments and lasting legacy to what is highest in us. We need to broaden the conversation from what kind of triple pane high performance windows we want, to how can my home give back to the community that is sustaining it.
It is essential to eco effective building that we explore Home, Home MAKING, Homecoming and Hospitality that extends beyond our immediate nuclear circle.
This session aims to legitimize this kind of inquiry and offer some tools to initiate and cultivate such a conversation. We are here as part of NESEA because we are heart centric; we all kinda do this already. Lets bring it into the light and together explore our hearts' true longing for connection, meaning, and harmony.