Erik Zakhia

Self-employed on family lands, I most of the time work on my own.
- Construction of an aquatic ecosystem favoring amphibian life (a series of canals and basins) while increasing the resilience of these productive gardens to drought, and cultivating aquatic plants such as watercress inside those water bodies;
- Cultivation of fruits, vegetables, grains and salads according to concepts of agroforestry and permaculture;
- Personal research and experiment about a personalized version of hoogleculture (mound culture) in order to grow large vegetables such as squashes and pumpkins in a forested or wooded area;
- Personal research about making the genetic variety of seeds evolve year after year and adapt more and more to the local conditions and climate;
- Construction of several stairways in those fields, one in particular to climb on the rooftop of an old barnhouse, of 4.5 meters high, moving on my own around ten tons of stones, using antique, medieval construction techniques, and only a tiny bit of cement on top;
- Recycling of all sorts of materials (wood, aluminium, plastic) to give them a second life, in relation with agriculture and seed savings projects in the Garden of Ermacchia;
- Daily cares to many domestic animals (cats, hedgehogs, turtles, water turtle...) in the Garden of Ermacchia in order to build a more resilient ecosystem, and to keep pests away;
- Plantation of productive flowering plants and trees making the Garden of Ermacchia a haven for bees;
- In the Garden of Ermacchia, project I initiated on my own, with the agreement and support of my family members, I use no chemical or biological product, no pesticide and no chemical fertilizer, making these lands entirely sustainable for the environment, and for the human health.
- Non-exhaustive list of cultivated fruits and vegetables: mulberry, strawberry, peach, pomarrosa, banana, green apple, pomegranate, fig, grape, passion fruit, medlar, squash, pepper, eggplant, salads (15 types), sweet potato, etc.

I have almost completed the writing of three historical-fantasy novels that are not yet published.
My first novel (Fln*) takes place in the past, while the series of novels that follow one another I've started writing (TGWCL*) takes place in the future. I cannot for now reveal the titles of those novels, nor their content, for confidentiality reasons.
While writing, my aim is to deeply touch the readers, and let them view and perceive the world in a different way after reading my books; or at least that is what I hope to achieve.
My novels focus on themes such as true love, but also on the meaning of life, and a critique and a questioning of the modern world and excessive use of technology. TGWCL* treats of very serious themes, but it is also humoristic. I've written around 2000 pages almost ready to be published.
My books are not depressing to read. Life is gray enough, I believe, to write gray books. My philosophy is to write novels that end well (at the very end) to encourage my readers to be courageous, to follow their hearts, to follow their dreams. I always disliked reading books that do not end well, because, according to me, these books will leave their readers with a negative impression, and won't contribute to improve their life, and bring to them more happiness. I wish my readers to feel safe while reading my books: no matter how great are the difficulties my characters go through, goodness and fairness will at the end triumph. This is a certainty. And I invite all my readers, all my friends, and all my acquaintances, to adopt this philosophy in their life: to always believe that things will go well at the end, in order to take the right decisions, in order to follow their life ideals, and do what is fair, not only for them, but for the world, for other human beings, and for the environment.
Everything in life is interrelated. And a good novelist is also a philosopher, a thinker. This is why it takes so much time to write a truly good novel.

As an "ingénieur d'études", I worked on many projects located in Switzerland (Lausanne, Genève, Prilly, Crissier, Saint-Sulpice, Villars-sur-Glâne, etc.) and abroad (Toulouse...).
My role was to take care of all the technical parts of those projects, alone, or with other engineers on large-scaled projects such as "Toulouse Aerospace Express", under the guidance of a project manager.
The projects I took care of touched all aspects of mobility, from road and intersection design and dimensioning, to public transportation design (metro, buses, tramway, train, etc.); from the design and elaboration of cycling tracks and sidewalks, to the design of short and long term strategies in order to change the behavior of citizens and encourage them to use more sustainable transportation modes.
At Transitec, I was known to be innovative in the solutions I proposed, and daring, never hesitating to propose to make roads narrower, to remove parking spaces, and to favor the less polluting and encumbering transportation modes.
I learnt a whole panoply of skills, including all the technical aspects and calculus related to traffic engineering and transportation engineering. But I also learnt various aspect of statistic analysis, of future projections. And our work was conducted in close collaboration with architects and urban planners, and there was in the largest scaled projects important urban planning aspects to take into consideration. I also learnt technical drawing and mapping skills, as well as developed my presentation skills. I had the opportunity to work with many different actors, such as engineer and urbanist colleagues, but also municipalities, regions, promoters, and to understand how decision making at the scale of a municipality, a large town, a region, is conducted.
I was recognized as a skilled transportation engineer who worked with values and ethics; my decision to reorient my career stemmed from my wish to become a writer and speak directly to the heart of people.

During my internship, I successfully worked on conceiving and writing the first "Rapport de l'Observatoire et des Projections de la Mobilité de l'Etat de Vaud".