COLÒNIA AGRÍCOLA PLANA NOVELLA
An Educational, Social, and Sustainable Cause
Culinary Arts
In the heart of the Plana Novella Agricultural Colony, you will find the culinary arts at the service of the Common Good. A place where the acts of cultivating, cooking, and nourishing oneself are motivated by respect for people, life, and the planet..
The Challenge of Being SustainableS
The Garraf, a region with over two millennia of winemaking tradition, saw the birth of the Plana Novella Agricultural Colony in 1885: a visionary project that not only dedicated hundreds of hectares to vineyards but also became a beacon of cultural splendor.
Ravaged by phylloxera, wildfires, and speculation, the project fell into abandonment starting in 1896. A century later, in 1996, the Sakya Tashi Ling Buddhist community established itself within its ruins to found its first monastery.
Since 2021, the community has spearheaded a profound process of reinterpretation and recovery of the ancient colony. This initiative goes beyond mere heritage conservation: it is an invitation to inhabit the world in a different way.
A model where human development, social development, and sustainable development are not understood as separate goals, but as a single, interdependent reality.
Recovery and Reinterpretation of the ancient Plana Novella Agricultural Colony
A HISTORY WHIT A
GREAT FUTURE
the beginnig
The Colònia Agrícola Plana Novella is born: 384 hectares dedicated to the agricultural arts—vineyards and olive groves—and the fine arts.
The decline
A life of excess, unfortunate investments, and phylloxera lead the owners to bankruptcy. A path of abandonment, looting, and speculation begins.
The Wildfires
During the 70s and 80s, the Garraf Massif suffers a series of devastating wildfires that destroy its natural and cultural heritage.
The Community
The Sakya Tashi Ling Buddhist community establishes its first monastery in the ruins of the ancient colony, beginning the long process of restoration.
A Solidarity Cause
The community undertakes a process of reinterpretation and design for a triple-benefit future for the renewed Plana Novella Agricultural Colony.
BASE
camp
The Garraf Massif embodies the scar left by the 20th-century model of linear progress: an “extract, produce, consume, and discard” system that ignored its incalculable natural value.
Driven by this utilitarian vision, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area degraded the territory into a mere “landfill”—a decision made without considering the ecological value of the land or any sustainable planning.
This choice marked a turning point in the history of the massif, leaving a deep wound whose devastating environmental and social effects endure today, despite restoration efforts.
Today, the ancient Colònia Agrícola Plana Novella is reborn as the epicenter of a different way of inhabiting the world. It is established as a base camp for researching an Educational Ideal centered on the Common Good and inspired by the Way of the Middle Thesis
A nexus between ancient wisdom and the challenges of the 21st century. This is where the Instituto de Conciencia applies the Triple Benefit Methodology™ to analyze the interdependence between three major areas of knowledge: human development, social development, and sustainable development.
An educational ideal centered on the common good. A different way of inhabiting the world.
school of trades
Cultivating the land and transforming its fruit is humanity’s primary dialogue with life. Professionals in the agricultural and culinary arts do not merely produce food: they are the silent guardians of our health and the architects of a Common Good that begins at the root.
A BOND THAT
MAKE US BETTER
Where there was abandonment, wildfires, and speculation, today we sow life, awareness, and community.
Where phylloxera razed the vineyards, today we cultivate with respect for the earth.
Where there was looting, today we generate a protected cultural and natural heritage.
_ We recover its history to evolve the meaning of life.
_ We protect its natural environment as the necessary medium for a healthy life.
_ We promote a Triple Benefit Ideal for People, where personal success, social cohesion, and the health of the planet are one and the same reality.
