This is a problem in the US as well. There are numerous ecovillages way out in rural areas in counties with relatively lax regulations, places like Dancing Rab

This is a problem in the US as well. There are numerous ecovillages way out in rural areas in counties with relatively lax regulations, places like Dancing Rabbit (http://www.dancingrabbit.org/ http://www.dancingrabbit.org/) and Earthhaven (http://www.earthaven.org/ http://www.earthaven.org/), but there are many more communities where you can't even plant a garden. You have to maintain a perfect lawn or else. I live in an ecovillage that is attempting this sort of building in a (small) city. It's a city that is generally friendly to our efforts, but city, county and state code still make it pretty much prohibitively expensive. We're still trying to find a way through it, at least to a happy medium.