
Hamadryad was founded by Carl in 2009 as a project that would, in time, prove that living in harmony with nature is actually possible! About a year after, his girlfriend, Nele joined up and ever since both of them are working side by side to find alternative solutions to prevent environmental problems caused by daily domestic life.
What started as a dream slowly becomes reality...
What started as a dream slowly becomes reality...
This site is just for sharing our little adventure with people who share the same interest in Nature, natural building methods and a natural lifestyle.
Our goal is to build a model-house that integrates all kinds of low-impact technologies and serves as an example to other people who think likewise. We would also like to convince local authorities to allow alternative building methods and even promote low-impact living as this kind of living could help saving our environment!
To us Hamadryad is a playground on which we can experiment with all kinds of low-impact solutions and share them with the world.
To you Hamadryad could be a place where you can discover how to live in nature, with respect to nature and fueled by nature simply by spending a few days (or longer) in our enchanting little house in the Belgian woods.
Surely you can allready start exploring by browsing our website where we will share all our experiences with you. Enjoy!
To you Hamadryad could be a place where you can discover how to live in nature, with respect to nature and fueled by nature simply by spending a few days (or longer) in our enchanting little house in the Belgian woods.
Surely you can allready start exploring by browsing our website where we will share all our experiences with you. Enjoy!

A hamadryad is a Greek mythological being that lives in trees.
They are a particular type of dryad, which are a particular type of nymph.
Hamadryads are born bonded to a certain tree.
Some believe that hamadryads are the actual tree, while normal dryads are simply the entities, or spirits, of the trees.
If the tree died, the hamadryad associated with it died as well.
For that reason, dryads and the gods punished any mortals who harmed trees.
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamadryad)
They are a particular type of dryad, which are a particular type of nymph.
Hamadryads are born bonded to a certain tree.
Some believe that hamadryads are the actual tree, while normal dryads are simply the entities, or spirits, of the trees.
If the tree died, the hamadryad associated with it died as well.
For that reason, dryads and the gods punished any mortals who harmed trees.
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamadryad)
Hello, my name is Carl.
As long as… well.. as long as I can remember I always loved to spend time in nature. I loved hiking in the mountains as a kid with my parents and brother and now with friends, girlfriend and son or alone…
During high school I picked up on some survival books that really caught my interest. I asked myself questions like “How can I purfiy water?” or ” How can I find food and medicines in nature?” and so on…
I’m only a novice in survival and my knowledge of nature is very limited, but I believe strongly that gaining as much knowledge of natural processes, animals and plants is necessary to understand how we can consciously live (“survive”) on our blue planet without destroying it.
I wasn’t always conscious about this fragile, vulnerable earth beneath our feet. We have only walked upon it as humans for such a short period and yet we have left an almost indelible footprint.. destroying all natural balance.
It was only a few years ago I started asking myself some basic questions: Where does the warm, “drinkable” water of my tap actually comes from? How was life without radios, pc’s, internet, cars,… ? Am I conscious about the impact of all this on myself and on nature? Sadly enough I had to conclude that most of the time I had been living in the womb of society, fed and nursed by everything around me.. “protected”. This state of numbness, I lived in for years, I due to an alienation of everything that surrounded me in all of my daily activities (my studies, job, my lifestyle, general materialism and consumption,…). There is no one to blame though but myself.
The main question that kept my mind busy was: “How can I change all this for myself?”
How can I step out of this “safe state of living” and live more conscious with nature and society surrounding me? Well, there is only one way to find out: Just do it!
And hi, my name is Nele ;)
Ever since I was a child, I was interested in nature and its protection. From a young age I was aware of the need for another way of life in order to protect the earth we are living on.
I first came into contact with natural building techniques during some travels in West Africa and South East Asia. The low impact building methods and the houses in sync with their environment, really spoke to my imagination. Determined to learn more about it, I traveled to Poland where I followed several courses on building with cob, straw bale building, rammed earth, earthen plastering techniques and much more...
About a year later, I met this handsome man with some crazy plans for a low impact project and, well, the rest is history...
As long as… well.. as long as I can remember I always loved to spend time in nature. I loved hiking in the mountains as a kid with my parents and brother and now with friends, girlfriend and son or alone…
During high school I picked up on some survival books that really caught my interest. I asked myself questions like “How can I purfiy water?” or ” How can I find food and medicines in nature?” and so on…
I’m only a novice in survival and my knowledge of nature is very limited, but I believe strongly that gaining as much knowledge of natural processes, animals and plants is necessary to understand how we can consciously live (“survive”) on our blue planet without destroying it.
I wasn’t always conscious about this fragile, vulnerable earth beneath our feet. We have only walked upon it as humans for such a short period and yet we have left an almost indelible footprint.. destroying all natural balance.
It was only a few years ago I started asking myself some basic questions: Where does the warm, “drinkable” water of my tap actually comes from? How was life without radios, pc’s, internet, cars,… ? Am I conscious about the impact of all this on myself and on nature? Sadly enough I had to conclude that most of the time I had been living in the womb of society, fed and nursed by everything around me.. “protected”. This state of numbness, I lived in for years, I due to an alienation of everything that surrounded me in all of my daily activities (my studies, job, my lifestyle, general materialism and consumption,…). There is no one to blame though but myself.
The main question that kept my mind busy was: “How can I change all this for myself?”
How can I step out of this “safe state of living” and live more conscious with nature and society surrounding me? Well, there is only one way to find out: Just do it!
And hi, my name is Nele ;)
Ever since I was a child, I was interested in nature and its protection. From a young age I was aware of the need for another way of life in order to protect the earth we are living on.
I first came into contact with natural building techniques during some travels in West Africa and South East Asia. The low impact building methods and the houses in sync with their environment, really spoke to my imagination. Determined to learn more about it, I traveled to Poland where I followed several courses on building with cob, straw bale building, rammed earth, earthen plastering techniques and much more...
About a year later, I met this handsome man with some crazy plans for a low impact project and, well, the rest is history...