Teaching and Advocating for Natural Building through workshops, testing and practice

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We believe that housing is a human right and that it can be climate-resilient and dignified for all.

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We teach, construct, and advocate for Natural Building practices, encouraging people to engage with our built environment. Natural Building is the art and practice of building structures with local natural materials. Natural building is not new, but it is revolutionary. We blend the practices gathered from traditions around the world, remembering that every one of us come from ancestors who built their own shelter with local materials, with modern day building practices. The common techniques we employ are cob, light straw clay, adobe, earthbag, and strawbale, using them to build houses, garden walls, wood fired earthen ovens, earthen plasters, and earthen floors.

2025 Offerings

  • Cob Oven Workshop

    October 25th & 26th

    Potter Valley, CA

    We’ll build a cob oven from start to finish, using clay soil, sand and straw.  Through the process of building a cob oven, we also cover a wide variety of earthen building techniques that can employ these and other natural materials in other systems of building.  All of our ancestors built homes with local natural materials, and cooked food in a variety of different ways using fire, but today we so rarely have an opportunity to use the basic element of fire to cook our food.

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  • Build Outside the Box - On a Budget

    THIS IS A NEW COURSE- REGISTER ANYTIME AND ACCESS CONTENT IMMEDIATELY.

    This is an online course.

    If you are planning to build for yourself and are looking to keep costs down while building, this course is for you! With instructors teaching on different topics, you will gain expert insights to help you avoid common pitfalls, save money, and plan for success!

    Cost is $147 Use discount code COB100 and receive 20% off!

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  • Interested in Hosting a Workshop?

    Do you feel your land would be a good place to host a workshop? We often teach workshops on other peoples land, if we feels its a god fit all around. Priority goes to past students, but reach out regardless.

    -Workshops we offer include:

    -Cob Oven

    -Introduction to Earthen Building

    -Natural Plasters

    and more.

    Fill out this form if you are interested, or have questions!

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JOIN US FOR A WORKSHOP

We offer both in person and online workshops. When we started teaching online we thought it was going to be temporary, but we have come to love the accessibility it offers. What a privilege to offer support to people all over the world who can’t travel to join us in person, as well as parents that cant travel easily.

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Earthen Shelter

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@earthenshelter

Nearly a year ago the Palisades and Eaton Fires destroyed 13,000 homes. In the wake of these fires, there has been a huge wave of excitement for the possibilities of rebuilding with fire safe* building materials. Instead, LA is celebrating the firs
Last day to register for the Build Outside the Box Mastermind course. (Online) If you are curious to learn more about many different Natural Building techniques so you can determine which systems and materials you might want to build with, this clas
Last two days to register for our online course with @buildoutsidethebox ! Not ready to start yet? You get LIFETIME access, so you can start anytime without missing anything. Don’t know what method of building will work best for you? This c
Three more days to register for our online alternative building course with @buildoutsidethebox ! LIFETIME access to all course content and all future add-ons. Use coupon code COB100 at checkout to get $105 off tuition - link in bio or on EarthenShe
What natural building technique is best for your location and site? There is no one solution, or best option. Every location has its own set of unique opportunities and challenges that help shape what is best for that particular location. This hous
Free live class tonight, Wednesday Oct. 22 : Overcoming Permitting Challenges. The permitting process is often very daunting for someone trying to build a natural or alternative structure. We will discuss: 🔸Overview of Natural Building Codes 🔸Tes
Build Outside the Box Mastermind is Live! Cart is open! For a limited time only - so be sure to take advantage of this unique and powerful resource! Receive $105 off with Coupon Code COB100 This offer is only valid until Wednesday, October 29th. L
Two spots left in our Cob Oven Workshop. October 25-26 in Potter Valley, CA. Meals and camping are included, and we will do some cooking all together in the cob oven we have already built. What this course will cover: 🔥Building an oven start to
ADU plaster project completed. @goldhillclayplaster with American Clay pigment. Thanks to @yetimachine and @annaofthemeadow for working on it with me. Dream team! Corners like this are not recommended for earthen plaster, and are super challenging t
We are looking for kichen support for our upcoming Cob Oven workshop, in trade for taking the workshop, Oct. 25th and 26th in Potter Valley, CA. You would miss very little of the workshop. Ideally you are someone would either lives locally, or is a
We dont know exactly when humans started using ‘ovens’ to cook food, but the original ovens likely looked more like pits in the ground, where fire was built inside the pit, the ground around the pit heated up, and food was then placed in