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

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.

  • Rocket Stove Cooker

    Join myself and Kirk (Donkey) Mobert for a 3 day deep dive into learning about Rocket Stoves. In this workshop we will be building a Rocket Cook Stove, the next addition to our wood fired kitchen.

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  • Build Outside the Box

    REGISTRATION CURRENTLY CLOSED- Stay tuned for the next round.

    This online course is taught by 16 Masterminds, builders, designers, scientists and teachers each who cover one type of building system.

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  • Earthen Walls - (Already passed)

    In this class we will use the same basic materials; clay, sand and fiber, to create a variety of different earthen building systems, including cob, adobe, Light straw clay, redwood bark clay, wattle and daub and earthen plasters.

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  • Natural Plaster (already passed)

    Join myself and Yoshi Makino for a 3 day deep dive into learning about natural plasters and finishes. From earthen base coats to fine finishes, we will cover a wide range of techniques.

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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.

Earthen Shelter

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@earthenshelter

Join me for a free class where we will delve into various ideas of how to engage your community in your building projects. What are the materials and systems that lend themselves to this sort of community practice? What are the pros, and what are the
I am working on a presentation for the next course to be released by @buildoutsidethebox, and coming across some fun old photos. Thinking about community, and what that truly means in these crazy times. I have been trying so hard to find a deeper c
Since we relocated to Northern CA a few years ago, we have been delving more into the world of round pole construction. Many of our local forests are quite overgrown with small diameter Douglas fir and pine trees, due to decades of poor management. T
Last month I posted a step by step guide of how we constructed our most recent rocket mass heater to optimize efficiency and cooking surfaces. I’ll elaborate on the cooking surfaces here. In the first photo, I numbered the surfaces 1-5, hottes
Our Rocket Stove Cooker workshop has room for two more students. Join us next weekend as we build an earthen rocket stove cooker with Kirk “Donkey” Mobert @sundogbuilders , learning the principles of rocket stove technology and how to bu
We are excited to be hosting Kirk “Donkey” Mobert @sundogbuilders in less than 2 weeks, Oct. 3rd, 4th and 5th. He will be teaching a 3 day workshop on building a Rocket Stove to cook on. Over the years he has been incredibly generous wit
One more hands on work party this fall, with the focus on learning through doing. Sept. 26- 30 (or weekend option) In this Natural Building Camp we will be focusing on the base coat of earthen plaster and the mid layer of earthen floor, We aim to pr
Our rocket stove cooker workshop is two weeks away. Join us Oct 4-6 in Potter Valley, CA as we build an earthen rocket stove for cooking with one of the most experienced teachers, Kirk “Donkey” Mobert of @sundogbuilders There is so much