Achim

I stepped into nomadic life early. At 21, I built my own circus caravan, a cozy home on wheels that became my only base for the next 33 years.

I began crafting jewelry, later expanding into musical instruments, gradually building a fully mobile workshop. This allowed me to live my creativity while continuously traveling.

Along the way, I realized larger artistic projects, including two park and garden installations commissioned by retreat centers, where I acted as artistic project manager.

Moving between travel and belonging, I became part of diverse communities and cultural projects, often staying for months or even more then a year.

This path gave me insight into a wide spectrum of community visions, dynamics, and challenges, while also revealing the unique contributions, and tensions, that nomadic members bring.

In 1998, I became caravan master of Arche Nova, a traveling community of around 100 people.

I coordinated the entire mobile infrastructure, 45 rolling homes, industrial kitchen, sanitation systems, and daily life on the move.

Here, I learned what it truly means to hold and organize nomadic community at scale.

In the same year, I discovered the internet.

Fascinated, I taught myself web design, bought a laptop, and went online in 1999 with a hand-coded artistic website documenting my life on the move and promoting my projects, artistic products and nomadic services.

Long before the lifestyle got defined, I was already living the reality of a Digital Nomad.

On the left, screenshots of my early website

In 2001, I found a piece of land in southern Spain and envisioned a place where nomads could come and go within a continuously held communal space.

Together with fellow nomads, some arriving with full workshop trucks, I created Valle de Sensaciones.

Framed as an “Ecovillage Laboratory,” it became an early form of Coliving, long before the concept of 'flexible community environments for temporary integration' went mainstream.
For over 20 years, it hosted a steady flow of nomads exploring community, creativity, and alternative living.

Through all the international connections I recognized a bigger picture.

A global movement of people exploring new ways of living was emerging, but it lacked networking tools.

I shifted my focus into digital work, beginning to design and build platforms that could support ecological and community-based lifestyles at scale.

Through my work with the Global Ecovillage Network, I spent nine years as platform developer, database administrator, and communication facilitator, connecting community initiatives across five continents and more than 50 countries.

Working at the intersection of technology and human networks, I developed a deep understanding of how complex, decentralized communities can be mapped, structured, and made accessible without losing their diversity.