mud for everyone

Strawbale Wall at the Boom Festival

2010-12-01T00:45:00.000-08:00

Welcome everyone, to Boom!

It's an art-based psytrance music festival located in the desert of eastern Portugal. It happens every other year and they are really making an effort to have all of the structures as natural and earth-conscious as we can make it.

I'm here to play with bamboo as much as possible and build a strawbale wall around a movie screen/workshop area that needed some added sound isolation. I didn't know exactly what I was getting in to when I arrived, but it turned out great, and there's a lot of photos here to give you a glimpse at my adventure. I brought along dear friends, Sebastian, Julia and Fezzo to help make it happen. Dozens of other bamboo builders and volunteers from around the world learn to get in the mud and see what we can do with all this clay, sand and straw.

we start with an outline of the wall created by some locally grown bamboo poles

I decide to use the bamboo framework as external pinning and stack the bales into columns between them

extensive staking with hand carved bamboo splits help toe nail each bale to the next. Thanks to Danny Pando for making all those beautiful stakes and doing it fast enough to keep up with the flow.

I make a really fancy tying system to hold the external framework together but only reveal a beautiful simple lash once plastered.

My fearless friends, Sebastian and Ilima, help me get the bales up to 14 courses high! Lots of hammering and balancing involved on this one. We also spend a few days shaving the corners of the bales and shaping the form as much as possible.

Then comes the mud

The first coat over the bales is a basic clay slip

Our head honcho and bamboo guru, Gerard, gets into it!

working all together we cover 300 bales in about 2 days!

Then, we start a finish plaster mix in two huge pits lined with old billboard material

and yes, the most fun and efficient way to mix, is to just dive right in!

besides, getting coated in mud helps protect us from the scorching sun!

diving the edges up to the bamboo provides a nice place for a cold joint and gives each volunteer a sense of accomplishment, one section at a time.

plus the juxtaposition of mud and bamboo is so beautiful!

already a great place for our snack and juice break, i will never forget those white cheese sandwiches!

we keep plastering

even through the night

Julia works on a sculptural bench

it turns out just lovely

check out the site-found crystal that we integrate into it!

on the back side of the wall, we build shelves for the 'marketplace'

i create a nest to hide the joint between the edging branches

meanwhile, I help make this special component that will support the fanning shade sails

and a shade structure starts to go up around the theater area

we spend an entire night spreading out ten dump truck loads of sand throughout the arena

in use!

After the festival, we take down the sails, but get to leave the wall standing. It's going to be used as a drive in movie theather for the local community.

long distance aerial shot from my campsite

hard work pays off!

photo credits: Julia Bonneheim & Erica Ann

the Regi

2010-12-01T00:03:00.000-08:00

This little structure was a great synthesis of bamboo and mud

I create a canya wattle with bamboo splits for bracing

Then, pile up some strawbales and large rocks for seating

starting to mud over the canya wattle with a 'heavy clay-straw' mix

my crew are experts by now

two walls bamboo panels and two walls earthen benches

inside is the main DJ and control booth for the two stages in the Drop

a great spot to rest and neat to see it endure some heavy use during the festival

the Drop at Boom

2010-11-30T16:14:00.001-08:00

the Lake Idanha Nova

and future site of the Drop

Cleaning the bamboo splits and sorting into different grades of looseness

Let the weaving begin!

"yip, yip.... back, back"

it's the special language of large scale bamboo wall weaving

the ends come together in curving organic forms

the tall end of the wall gradually spreads and will frame the acrobatic stage

the tails become garden spaces

one-of-a-kind wall!

these columns will support the screen on the opposite side of the structure

making woven panels

installing the panels into meter deep trenches in the ground

intentionally bending them over

the two walls are brought together to form a tunnel

then we go around the length of the tube (about 500') attaching the two sides together with bamboo rafters and lashings, not a single nail was used

we continue working through the night

the 'roof' is made with lycra fabric stretched and tied down where ever possible

such an amazing space for a gallery!

even the sheep dig it

the Dance Temple at Boom

2010-11-30T15:34:00.001-08:00

Columns made from bundles of seven

swaging cables for this tensile structure

before and after

there are several hundred to complete

the members go up

the fabric sails go on

the colors are arranged as a beautiful flower mandala filled with sacred geometries

time to dance!

Other Great Projects at Boom

2010-11-30T15:17:00.001-08:00

A wonderful community kitchen.

It's a cob oven and rocket stove style grills all in one!

Plaster texture detail on the oven

A bamboo framed dream catcher portal to the Drop

A ferrocement greywater reclaimation system with live plants for on-site water treatment

A beautiful mosaic dragon, in process

rotating driftwood sculpture

Canya is an amazing sculptural framing material

Essentially, sugar cane stalks, that grow rampant all along the northern mediterrean coast. Bundled in groups of 30 or so, spliced to any desired length and then built up like a basket.

Truly inspiring to me!

Endlesss Possibilities with Bamboo

2010-11-23T12:30:00.000-08:00

Making bamboo cups and hosting a workshop so that everyone could have a re-useable, easy to distinguish drinking cup. Carving and burning bamboo gives some really neat effects!

A bamboo bowl

bench built by Nick Mattson

the 'Pigglet" stool

offcuts used for a garden border fence

even a ladder!

bamboo balls!

Rammed Earth Column

2010-11-21T09:07:00.001-08:00

Alright, pop quiz, so what can you make with steel pipes, and some scraps of plastic corrugated roofing?

okay, okay, and a bunch of duct tape?

Answer: A fluted column form for a site-based, rammed earth experiment!

After reading all the books I could find on the subject and doing small batch tests with the local soil, I design the mix to be 16 : 3 : 1 (site soil, mason's sand, cement) for the optimal compressive strength and a finish that I won't have to plaster yet still withstand the elements.

We weren't entirely sure if the whole thing wasn't just going to collapse actually when we took of the form the following day. But it worked great!

I even threw in a couple layers of varying colors and textures

and sculpt a cob cornice at the top

A huge light reflector serves as the roof and gives a 3" overhang around the whole thing.

It's located at the entry of the Garden of Earthly Delights,

at the BRING Planet Improvement Center

and supports the beautiful reclaimed metal gate built by local metal sculptor, Jud Turner

Village Building Convergence 2010

2010-11-10T23:42:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Village Building Convergence, a true gem about Portland and one of my personal favorite things about the city.

Each year, an organization called City Repair puts on a ten-day festival of community building and place-making, often using natural construction to do so. It's wonderful, 25 sites all across the city welcomed community members to join in playing in the mud while creating beautiful meaningful relationships and simple projects along the way. I was honored to be one of their guest instructors this year and participate in many of the activities throughout the week.

A cob bench from a previous year, being wholesomely enjoyed

An intersection painting, brings neighbors together in the street and helps slow down traffic with it's thoughtful design. There are many of these throughout Portland, how many have you seen?

A cat palace, built last year and led by my dear friend Eva Miller,

and this year she's building a Chicken Palace.

What lucky animals in the urban place!

She also led the renovation of the City's first legal Light Clay-Straw Retrofit.

And it came out great!

Here's a detail picture of the wall section for all you builder nerds

My awesome new friend Fezzo who was my housemate for the week.

and his bright red kilt that we dyed together mid-week.

This project was my favorite--an outdoor classroom at Madison High School. The timberframe and main cob walls had been built the previous year. Now we are adding strawbale ampitheater style seating and some bamboo and sculptural cob.

I have never seen as enthusiastic cobbers as here!

What a huge batch!

Rachel gets into it

Beautiful lime finishes from the prior year

Wetting down the top of the wall so that we can add to it this year. An amazing attribute of natural construction, that it is forever mendable and able to be rehydrated and continued.

Sebastian works on a bamboo detail.

Casey lays out the bale seats.

Then the seats are cover with slip and cobbed together, making it very strong.

We sculpt a sun at the center point of the top

Many, many people are involved with making it happen

Across town, at another project site, I lead a plaster workshop.

We are applying the final coat of plaster on a cob bench built the previous year.

Ellen has a great time finishing the project, she has put a lot of energy into the transformation of her backyard into a food forest sanctuary and community garden. She can't wait to enjoy using the bench!

So excited for next year, please check out www.cityrepair.org for more info, and see you there!

Cob Loop-de-Loop!

2010-06-01T17:40:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the BRING Planet Improvement Center!

I'm building a piece for their sculpture park called the Garden of Earthly Delights.

It's a totally ground-breaking, never been done before that I know of, cob-adobe hybrid spiraling loop-de-loop... yes, all that and some.

the 'before' shot

Laying the urbanite foundation

with a gravel bed below and reclaimed chimney bricks every 8 feet. Something had to break up the 50' long curved bench. The gently curving part is intended for classroom style seating when BRING wants to host groups to learn about sustainability, salvage and using reclaimed materials.

A group of high school students spends their spring break getting muddy and learning about how to build with cob.

We finish most of the length of the bench that week.

Then, I begin the loop

Building up the plynths

more cob,

even solo

finally the bases are ready

and I start the adobe arch, using a 5 foot diameter plywood form

a new friend, Jessica Gray, helps out

making arches is a total blast!

More cob, fleshing out the structural adobe arch

More builder friends join in to help with the integral roof/bench surface. We're using toilet tank covers to protect the cob.

We debate it for a long while and decide to go with a salvaged steel armature to support the overhang of the toilet tank covers. It's totally great working at a salvage warehouse, all materials right on hand!

Eva Miller and I trim the form of the loop

Max and Fezzo work on the toilet tank extravaganza

Each piece is slightly sloped to the rear to drain.

We use cementitious mortar to set the porcelin

The toilet tank covers follow the form of the bench and spiral upwards

we have to get clever about how we will secure them up-side-down

It takes all four of us to get them to behave

Wired in and temporary strings help out too. Defying gravity is one of my favorite things...

Super hero pvc'ers to the rescue for the rafters, another great find at the warehouse

the roof for the loop gets framed with these, Max Edelson takes on that project

I teach a workshop on earthen plasters and have several wonderful folks join in on the finishing touches

Hooray!

Ethan Rainwater, the Garden Designer is happy with what we've created.

some finished shots, with two coats of linseed oil, this thing looks an awful lot like a chocolate frosted donut... complete with sprinkles!

my original sketch/rendering that I presented to get the gig

quite like I thought it would be!

HOPES Conference

2010-05-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

Every year, the architecture students at the University of Oregon put on a wonderful Green Building Conference called HOPES (Holistic Options for Planet Earth Sustainability). It's one of the largest and most well attended student-led conferences in the country.

This year, I was invited to speak on a Panel called "Designing Systems for Life" in which I gave the piece on 'shelter'. It was great to see the attentiveness and excitement of young minds with the introduction to natural construction. About 80 people attended, and they asked really great questions and were fully engaged.

I also led an earthen plaster workshop at the Conference and taught a dozen students while re-plastering a damaged ten-year old cob bench. All of the students were new to natural building and we only had three hours to do the whole job, but it turned out just great! Enjoy the photos

some of the workshop students

the damaged end of the bench - directly aligned with the roof edge. A great clear example of what happens to cob uncovered after ten years of Eugene rain.

We fix the cob on the end and start the next plaster layer.

Voila!

Urbanite Retaining Wall at the Garden of Invasive Species

2010-03-23T23:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Garden of Invasive Species, otherwise known as my backyard...

We've got ivy

and japanese knotweed (deliciously edible tho)

and lots and lots of Vinca Major!

Not to mention, I compiled a thorough list with the help of my landscaping buddy, Ethan Rainwater. Here goes:

Ivy, Vinca Major, English Holly, Japanese Knotweed, English Laurel, Port. Laurel, Himalayan Blackberry, Dandelion, Wood Hyacinth, Sing. Hawthorn, Mazzard Cherry, and Norway Maple. Yikes!

So, I don't feel bad about changing this landscape and taking some of the heavy clay soil out of there for my next cob structure. Score!

Digging out a small retaining wall

Let's curve it to define spaces I'll actually want to use

We use up some leftover urbanite from the cob greenhouse project and have some fun with the lines we can create, nothing like getting nerdy and muddy with a fellow designer...

we find a little shiva statue in the ivy and give it a proper rebirth

soon to plant edible nasturiums and strawberries!

My Little Moon Lodge

2010-03-18T23:55:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a long time since my last post, the winter has been good--restful and yet productive, planning away the 2010 building season. I did manage to squeeze in some building time over the course of it however, and finally it is a project for myself! And a hardcore exercise in renovation! My folk's property in southern Oregon had this little run-down cabin on it, built some 60 years ago by a teenage boy who needed some room from the main little house. I believe all the wood used for it was logged and milled on site and the cardboard insulation is totally a tribute to the food that was popular in the 1950's. Our insurance company says we needed to fix 'em up or tear 'em down. And since this little cabin had just about the most character of anything on the whole place, we decide to fix it up and hire fellow builder, Sebastian Collet, for some carpentry assistance and the story unfolds...

we find home-canned salmon and blackberries still sitting on the shelves!

and all sorts of treaures

funky mushrooms grow on bits of wood beneath the steps

my mom and I frame out a 5 foot cedar deck using a ledger board

four 4x4 posts and a few steps

then we gut the inside of the little cabin, to discover nostalgic cardboard food boxes tacked against the inside of the siding... insulation? or to stop infiltration? I think a new earthen infill is in order here.

even though no people have been living here, turns out 1,000's of wasps have. Their beautiful paper homes fill the wall cavities. Good thing most have moved on and none are there during the winter season.

a lot of debris is produced, but

we take advantage of the scrap lumber being produced

and whip up some new compost bins!

my mom does a great job on this side project!

Hummus on the way!

Sebastian does the dirty work, and tears off five layers of asphalt shingles!

and finally down to the skip sheathing

wait, yeah, how about let's get rid of that too!

we completely reframe the roof and north wall (which was sinking badly)

the new beams and rafters extend to cover the new deck

we use plywood as underlayment for the metal roofing

we put up a temporary railing for the insurance inspection, a more natural version is sure to replace it at some point

mom and I are so happy!

then on to some more fun things, we harvest scraggily oaks nearby to frame the porch and railing

Sebastian works it with a drawknife

we enjoy peeling the fresh poles

and then we ran out of time for November...

and four months later, we finally finish them, putting in another building session on the moon lodge

we notch the bases really cleverly...

just a slit with a circular saw to slip in the base and you can't even tell there's Simpson hardware in there

the top branching part of the poles gets notched to meet the rafters

classic bread cuts!

it's looking so much better with those round poles branching up to the roofline.

Thanks for helping me, Sebastian, and having loads of fun!

the rest of the railing soon to come, stayed tuned

Living Walls Earth Plaster & Aliz

2009-12-20T22:21:00.000-08:00

A beautiful timber frame structure to work on!

lots of stuff all around...

thank goodness for 5 gallon buckets!

we start with coco fiber mesh as lathe to span areas that might crack

this project had 36 rounds!

and lots of upside-down areas to plaster

the base coat goes over the Durasol stemwall and Light Clay-Straw walls

a nice pic of the substrates and base plaster layer

my mom joined in for a day of base coat application

somehow I got known to "love upside-down stuff"...

I guess it might be true :)

lots of taping off involved with a frame like this

scratched surface on the base coat

Ingredients for the final coat, how many bags of each do we need?

mixing it up in small batches

applying kaolin-based finish coat over the base coat

detailing those rounds!

and details around each framed opening

The gable ends were conventionally framed and covered with drywall. We primed the surface with latex paint that we added a bunch of coarse sand to. The surface looks like this and you can apply finish coat earth plaster right over it.

my plaster set up

working those gable end details

Finally time for some color! The client chose a light yellow aliz. Iron oxide is the best!

Details!

whose that monkey?

I must have climbed up and down that scaffold 100 times!

Joshua prefers to hang out on the tip top of the ladder...

but can he reach the very top?

the final texture is so beautiful

a nicely integrated 'truth window' shows off the plaster layers

sah-weet!

'Living Walls' plaster over an 'EcoNest' -- Working with Lime

2009-12-20T21:24:00.001-08:00

Alright, this had been a big job, and hence, haven't written in a while. But finally finished and what a good one it has been! Especially for those of you interested in the super flat and super refined earth plaster style. Good to practice.

The structure is a heavy timberframe with a mixture of traditional european and japanese joinery and infilled Light Clay-Straw. It was designed by Paula LaPorte and the construction was led by her husband, Robert Laporte, of EcoNest. My mom was at the straw-clay workshop for this structure, where I got introduced to the project from early on. Little did I know, six months later, when the walls were thoroughly dry, I would be on a team of four to plaster the whole thing.

For this project, I joined the crew of Living Walls, a Portland-based earth plaster company, led by Joshua Klyber. We did a lime plaster system on the outside and earth plaster with aliz on the interior. And we had a lot of fun! This post will focus on the lime plaster portion and my next will cover the earth plaster work. Enjoy!

The site and our mortar mixer set-up.

The Light Straw-Clay walls to be covered.

Base coat of lime goes up

Greg works it!

Comin' around the corner!

base and finish coat shown clearly here

Joshua is so silly sometimes!

Pigmented lime wash

the fun part!

cleaning up the stonework with muriatic acid

classic Econest!

This finish is at minimum a seven-pass system. First, we prime or lathe all windows edges, corners and other expanses of wood. Then we apply the rough base coat of lime plaster which has a lot of gravel. Next we press the plaster with a wood trowel to compact the lime as it dries. Then we score the surface with a small rake or scarifier. Then we come around again with a finish coat, no gravel in it this time. We follow again with a hard-packing motion with a wood trowel. Then we brush all the loose sand from the surface. Finally we apply a lime wash to give the surface color, actually two coats. So in all, we have come around to every square inch of this exterior wall surface nine times. Labor intense, no joke!

Natural Building Colloquium 2009

2009-11-05T14:37:00.001-08:00

Welcome to Camp Latgawa, and the 2009 West Coast Natural Building Colloquium

This is an annual gathering of professional and aspiring Natural Builders, who have come to share their stories, experiments and successes, discuss the state of the world, brainstorm ways to effect the main stream and build a few things while we're here!

Most of my photos are from the building projects that were going on during the week.

Peeling round poles for a new shade structure frame

Decorative hempcrete clings to a pole

This 10 year old plaster job is ready for a fresh coat

Well, we just so happen to have 70 creatives ready to fix that

Austin concentrates on his plaster job

the main gathering area comes together

the back of the bench

great work!

Darrel DeBoer teaches about bamboo construction

Julia tries a notch

fish trusses are fun

hose clamps make a connection without making any holes in the bamboo

Curving bamboo o'er an openfire

fish truss roof frame almost done

Sebastian attaches the posts and sheer bracing

good thing we had plenty of bales around

Chris and Jen from Ontario teach about Pre-fab Strawbale

Plaster is applied horizontally and saves lots of time.

Compressing the bales into the form

Big leaf maple prints in the plaster

Bob Theis leads an entry sequence revision. A new gabion retaining wall and curve is added the the entrance so that cars will park instead of drive into the camp. Perhaps the most important project we did this week.

Also, let's build a Rumford Fireplace down by the creek. With Ianto Evans here, how could we refuse?

a teepee frame in the meadow

a tiny little cottage, kids built this one a few years ago

i get an aerial silk lesson from a talented young girl

and there's even time for hikes in creek which surrounds this magical place on three sides

a newborn tree grows out of the moss-covered rock

mushrooms fruit from beneath fallen leaves

Two mushroom hunters accompany me on the hike

Art Ludwig leaves a cairn

Hope to see you all again next year!

Earthdance Bamboo

2009-11-05T14:05:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the Earthdance Music Festival!

We arrive with a truck load of bamboo and trailer full of fabric and natural fixins

the site is a natural cove formed by winter eddies,

when the rains rush through

We enhance the natural spiral form with bamboo poles splayed outward. Then we tie the poles to the center point (a beautiful gnarly tree) with manila cables

Hanumon is happy

Quinn and I get taller, a trick i learned back in junior high school

design session

building the portal to the spiral zone

Christopher does some innovative joinery

Ethan came along to this one, and fits right in with the crew

the main gate goes up

I do a fancy lash with crystals included (wired in first)

flower shaped shading connects the guy wires

playing with the fabric first!

the elder's throne

Quinn weaves a web behind the throne

testing lighting for the night

an earth mandala, created over the course of the festival, with public collaboration, fills the central space

shading effects

the elder's throne in action

Rainwater Greenhouse - Update

2009-10-26T14:46:00.001-07:00

Getting cobby!

the lovely Amit Chertoff, joins in for a day, just before heading back to Israel

Ethan is at home in the garden

Prepping bottles for more cob

reclaimed tile, thrift store grout, and tumbled broken bottle chips

create the potting surface

workshop participants get dirty with light straw clay

and base coat plasters

even old time friend, Max Edelson, stops by to get muddy for the afternoon

Lawrence is a pro at this rate, and helps teach the mixing techniques

Oiling the cut-face of the urbanite wall makes it really beautiful!

A little bit of bamboo conceals a less than perfect plaster detail

The main entrance begs you to enter

Chinking at all possible points of infiltration

Rainwater Greenhouse - From the Sketchbook

2009-10-26T14:35:00.000-07:00

A sample of the sketches that moved this project along.

Started the design work in May.

Notice how the design changed (for the better) up until construction started in mid July.

Basically the 'final design'

Passive solar strategies and structural details finally sorted out.

Rainwater Greenhouse Project

2009-08-27T00:56:00.000-07:00

My latest creation has been an exercise in Reclaimed Materials!

Building an earthen greenhouse combined with local salvage, for my dear friends, Ethan and Lawrence Rainwater in Eugene, Oregon. They have been transforming their 70's suburban lot into a garden paradise. At first the backyard had four large sheds and over 50% imprevious hardscape. They have salvaged the material from these sheds and paving, and Ethan hired me to build them into a greenhouse at the north edge of his yard with plans to extend his growing season. The structure will also house a young fig tree this winter and provide a winter coop for his chickens in the future. The structure I designed has only required one piece of new lumber and has absorbed over 3 tons of born again concrete!

Onward!

Laying the 2'x2' concrete blocks. Each was well over 100 lbs. This half wall along the back of the structure will provide a lot of thermal mass for the room and help moderate the temperature swings in colder parts of the year.

Hannah helps build the front wall, which will support the glass.

The urbanite stemwall on the solar side of the building is tied together with a ferrocement bond beam. This image shows the formwork and reinforcement before the pour.

The 4x4 frame is bolted together.

Knee bracing

Light stud framing and formwork for a Light Clay-Straw infill wall which will insulate the mass feature from the north.

Packing the Clay-Straw mixture

Removing formwork the same day.

Additional roof framing to support a steel roof, the first real expense in the project. We found a deal for around 50 cents per square foot.

Father and son do the installation.

Reeeeeach!

Framing the clerestory.

This part took a bit of figuring so that we could maintain operability.

We salvaged most of the glass from Eugene's very own BRING Recycled Building Material Supply Center. Learned a few lessons about reclaiming glass. Even as a very experienced glass cutter, tempered glass and safety glass aren't going to behave. The former I couldn't break no matter what I tried and the latter shattered into thousands of pieces at the slightest score. Tip on choosing glass you plan to cut into pieces, avoid doors which usually have treated glass, stick with old-fashioned windows and plate glass which can be cut with a few simple tools.

The lesson also provided an awesome photo-op

Now, on to some cob!

The east and west walls have a bunch of stud framing and shear bracing in them, but we wanted also as many windows as possible. Cob is the perfect medium for bring all those things together! Since the cob is not load-bearing we can also go much thinner than traditionally with the entire wall system! I like to add metal fencing material stapled to the framing to the center of the wall.

Planting the cinder blocks in the front urbanite stemwall.

Harvest yet to come!

Rainwater Greenhouse - Flipbook Progress

2009-08-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

~Welcome to the Rainwater Greenhouse Project Overview~

Pictures from the same point

over the course of building so far,

enjoy!

The site as I arrived to it.

Ethan and his father had already done much of the work, prepping an 18" deep gravel trench for the foot of the building and cutting 2'x2' concrete blocks out of existing slabs on their property.

The perimeter wall, another urbanite treasure from this place.

The main bent of posts and beams goes up.

Laying the foundation.

Ferrocement gutter cures

Purlins and brackets and beams, oh my!

Metal roofing goes up and reclaimed glass sliding doors form the front wall.

The clerestory is also crafted from reclaimed windows.

to be continued...

Suscol Strawbale - Part 4 Finishing Touches

2009-08-04T10:32:00.000-07:00

Interior finish plaster

skylights and niches

built-in hooks

sculpting the doorway

building a bamboo privacy fence

with locally grown bamboo

torching down the rockscape on the living roof

gravel drainage system

wow!

Suscol Strawbale Project - Part 3

2009-07-21T00:36:00.000-07:00

Time for the finish plaster!

Off-white aliz on the underside of the soffit

Tracy applying the final coat to the outside of the building

Bob comes around shortly after with the texture

We use the handle of the trowel to get the 'woven' texture

Early morning shadows are amazing

Enjoying popsicles along the way, what a treat on a 110 degree day!

voila!

Suscol Srawbale Project - Part 2

2009-07-20T22:24:00.000-07:00

So much has happened with this project since I last wrote!

Building a stone facing at the base of the building

Sculpting window bays around the 'paned' glass windows using Heavy Clay Straw. This has turned out to be a wonderful medium. You get the strength and formability of cob, yet can build quite thin and apply layers horizontally. The mixture is about 1:1 of clay and straw with no sand. I sculpted a retaining form and filled the center space with Very Light Clay Straw.

Amazingly, we got no cracks! Only a continuous shrinkage and gap to fill at the top once it dried

We also sculpted the doorway using the same technique.

Base coat plaster on the inside

We are using sheep's wool for insulating the roof. We dried it out in the sun and then stuffed it into the ceiling cavity as much as possible.

Closed in the ceiling with drywall and covered it with reed matting, for the classic, reed-plaster finish.

Sculpting the molding around the slylight openings.

On the outside of the building, I trimmed the roof-edge in a pattern to make the drip edge more decorative. Not the most fun job in the hot sun.

Bob torches down the roofing, even hotter I am sure!

We line the roof edge with fist-sized rocks. These will retain the soil on the low-profile living roof.

Suscol Strawbale Project - Part 1

2009-06-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

Now on to a slightly larger project. I have joined forces with Bay Area Architect, Bob Theis, to finish a strawbale building for an inter-tribal Native American sacred land. The project was started last summer by another person, but they were unable to complete it as started. It is interesting coming into a project that you didn't begin, but so far we are making the best of it. It has an octagonal framework with strawbale infill, cobbed windows, skylight & living roof.

The first week on the project we were assisted by an Americorps Crew, Hoopa Tribal Community Civilian Corps (TCCC). It was interesting getting muddy with these young natives, whom for the most part were delighted with the change of tasks--building with alternative materials instead of maintaining trails.

Earthbag foundation

Octagonal roof framing

Setting up the plaster prep area, glorious shade!

Bob demonstrated how to tie a custom bale

Gravel bag course work for the foundation

Yoshi, fills voids with a clay-straw mix

Processing local soil, from pile to plaster

Tracy Thieriot (Tactile Interiors) and her assistant Yoshi work on filling the structure

Americorps crew members make fill mix, essentially straw-clay that is really heavy on the clay

Covering the bales with slip

Tracy and Ceasar keep on slipping!

Curving slpits of bamboo over an open fire.

These will be used to support the arches over the cobbed window openings.

Sculpting the window openings

making 'paned' glass windows

a special project for a special place... stay tuned!

Balifornia Bamboo - Pagodas at the Harmony Festival

2009-06-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

The Lotus Pagoda

I contributed with an amazing eco-environment created by some of my bamboo friends for the Harmony Music Festival in Santa Rosa, California.

The design and construction was by Balifornia Bamboo,

and led by Brian Hanumon Scharf.

The Star Pagoda

Star Pagoda interior

with view of the floating bed

Hanu contemplates the final touches just before the festival opens.

Yummy bamboo joinery!

Beloved Yuba Devi (all things made possible by the hard-working, supportive and ceaselessy creative girlfriend) and her mother work to the last minute stuffing handmade pillows with strips of burlap reclaimed from local beaneries.

Gorgeous details!

Beveled bamboo flower holders tie-in with willow arches along each bamboo post

Amit burlaps every flower pot like a pro!

The finished Lotus Pagoda

Dark Bamboo structure follows six-pointed star geometries and flushed out with willow arches and tule reed, among many other locally harvested plant-based fibers and living plants. The base of each post has a balinese inspired altar, willow seat back and several handmade pillows.

The space is used for workshops and small presentations during the festival as well as a shady spot for people to rest and rejuvenate between scheduled activities.

The focal point of the Lotus Pagoda is an incredible bamboo chandelier designed and built by Chris Remmers of Eden Building and Design.

Star of David geometry looking upward

Even more awesome when illuminated at night

A spirit circle was also created with bamboo and living materials to honor the support of all the natural systems in the creation of this environment.

a nest at the top filled with offerings from the group reaches towards the sky

For more information, please visit Balifornia's website

www.baliforniabamboo.com

Earthen Sculpture on the Ithaca Commons

2009-06-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

As past of the 'Art in the Heart of the City' program this year, I was selected to create a sculpture on the Downtown Ithaca Commons. I created a sculptural bench that doubles as a play structure for kids. I constructed it during the annual Ithaca Festival and hundreds of people got to witness the building process.

"Yes, this thing is made from clay, sand and straw"

the site before

Bringing adobe bricks I made the week before

A special pass to drive on the pedestrian mall!

The foundation stones set

The arches formed

Adding sculptural cob to tie the arches together

Reinforcing butresses

Kids love it already!

Making cob

with my mom!

More kids get involved

underside of the arches before plastering

Starting the reclaimed tile mosaic

purple plaster!

Andrew, my faithful Ithacan building partner, enjoying the bench

Yes, arches are strong, even when made of mud!

the finished piece

Crane Hill Bio-Char Kiln

2009-05-27T20:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Crane Hill Gardens!

Some folks very interested in Bio-Char production invited me to build an earthen kiln on their land.

Making cob adobes with the soil from below the kiln site.

Very heavy clay and silty soil...

Made wonderful bricks!

Oh, the glorious 55 gallon steel drum...

what earthen burning device can do without?

Adobe perimeter walls

Cobbing in the flue pipe

Light Clay-Straw insulation

loading it up for the test-run

Finally found some pure clay at the local gravel pit. It's the last thing they want to find, so they gave it to me for free. Two colors of clay here in easily divisable layers.

Shredding and screening straw

even found some catails to test in the plaster mix

(what an adventure in material acquisition this has been!)

the finished kiln

more on the wood vinegar colleciton system and char results soon to come!

100-mile Bike Ride through the Los Padras National Forest

2009-05-17T16:38:00.000-07:00

At least once a year or so, I like to do something totally physically challenging and something I never knew I could do. This year, my natural builder friend, Kata Polano, invited me to join her on a 100-mile bike ride from Santa Barbar to a Women's Permaculture Gatherning at Quail SPrings Learning Oasis. We would have to go from sea level through the Los Pardes National Forest and go over two passes, the highest over 5000' in elveation, so how could I resist?

Gearing up

Art can not believe we are crazy enough to do this!

Especially since today is my first day riding this bike

And we are off!

The first day we rode through last year's burned region.
Upper Mountain Road, Santa Barbara
Heavy sights to take in.

But also funny stuff! Kata found this biker mailbox and couldn't resist some comic relief

Camping out & rice cakes for breakfast

Awesome water hole

the terrain ahead

Looking back down over the first pass, tons of switchbacks!
we just increased about 2500' elevation without any downhills

We forgot to bring any salty snacks, so kata licks her sweat back into her body.

ya know, bikers are hard-core

We reach the summit!
(and then it starts to rain)
our last 16 miles we were completely soaked, but it still felt so great!
especially knowing we had an amazing welcome crew down at Quail Springs.

Cuyama Valley

We survived, hooray!

West Coast Women's Permaculture Gathering

2009-05-17T16:20:00.000-07:00

Back to Quail Springs! This time arriving by bicycle! Never thought I would ride all the way to the Cuyama desert from Santa Barbara using pedal power, but somehow the notion of a women's permaculture gathering gave me the inspiration to do it.

The Goddess panel including
Penny Livingston-Stark, Kat Steele & Starhawk.

Our beautiful camping area

Bread making

the cob house is almost done!

Learning how to butcher a deer, we found it as road-kill on the highway

Lynn & Justin demonstrate how to use the compressed earth block machine.

A compressed earth block--home made.

Orchard toilets are our friends.

We began and closed our gathering with a ceremony including brewing compost tea. After it had bubbled away for two days, we all spread out the compost tea on the gardens.

Oasis Remodel

2009-05-17T15:24:00.000-07:00

Got to help out on a really fun plaster job with Kata Polano at a home near Santa Barbara, California. The 40's style cabin is being entirely retrofitted to withstand the Santa Barbara threats of wildfire. By finishing almost all the interior and exterior surfaces of the house with earth plaster (including eaves), this home is virtually fire-proof and hopefully if one did come it would pass right by.

The style is really elegant and the color palette is just charming. Kata has a great sense for earthen finishes. It was also lovely to work with this all-female crew. Somehow getting dirty together always makes for good friends.

Eva mixes plaster

Sculpting the bar between the kitchen and livingroom

Awesome steel bracket details support the salvaged granite countertop.

Kata does aliz (clay paint) with lots of mica onto the kitchen ceiling.

Kata does more aliz on the walls of the entry porch

Blue glass bottles in the ferrocement roof wash great colors onto the wall.

I work on a window detail, more mica aliz!

The finished porch window

Amit plasters an exterior wall

Arched plaster meets the ferrocement window treatment at the basement level

The most beautiful mechanical wall ever!

Earthen plaster surrounds each of the utility boxes and cable conections.

We save the leftover aliz (clay paint) by making 'cookies'.

Once dry they can be stored and then saved for repairs. Since we use custom dye-lots, this is the best way to get an exact match.

An interior niche filled with light from a solatube. Note: this is not on an exterior wall, it coming through the center of the house.

The basement apartment has a sweet little kitchen and dining space which got frequent use since the main kitchen was still a construction zone.

We even celebrated with a rocket-stove baked pizza.

Eva and Art are really excited about it, so adorable!

Bamboo 'Star Scraper' for the Coachella Music Festival

2009-04-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

I participated with the construction of this fully engineered, 100' tall bamboo tower, called the 'Star Scraper' because of it's six-pointed geometry and sheer size.

Design by BambooDNA

Details looking upward

Dusk scene at the festival

Illuminated at night

Another flaming sculpture at the festival, a stainless steel dragon with each vertibrae lighting up in flames at the touch of a button.

The crowd loves our sculpture!

Making of 'the StarScraper'

2009-04-22T18:28:00.000-07:00

Aerial of our prefab site - can't get any closer to the pacific ocean than this!

Lots of bamboo - mostly dendricalimus and guadua varieties

The main structural columns are made from 7 - 30' poles lashed together.

This is one of the few bamboo structures of it's size ever structurally engineered and approved in the US.

Testing the rigging without heavy machinery.

Loading the stake-bed trucks with all the pieces!

Unloading at the Coachella site

Fabricating the 60' columns on site.

How many men does it take to install an earth anchor?

We had to get these 9 feet deep because the soil here is mostly sand.

Loud. Grueling. Sweaty.

I'll take photographs.

Working late into the night on my birthday.

The best 'cake' I could have ever hoped to see lit up on this day.

With light towers and a Gradall, we can do anything.

The next morning, tweaking the angles

Installing the star-shaped cross bracing

Raising the 'spire', which is equipped with a propane line

and going to shoot fire at night. WOW!

It seems to float above the star

With spandex shade cloth attached!

Upward view

Thanks to the hard-working crew!

Tales of the Palapa Mama

2009-04-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

For the backstage component of BambooDNA's Coachella Music Festival project, we constructed four beautiful bamboo palapas. Each with several lounging areas and glorious details pulled together with a crew over 20 deep. I somehow ended up in a management role and helped make sure that everything was coordinated from pre-fab site to Coachella, used everyone's labor efficiently and dialed in the last details for the VIP backstage environment. Afterall, bamboo isn't just about huge sculptures, it's beautiful at the human scale as well and all the rockstars during this weekend got well acquainted with our work.

Prototyping and prefab in Santa Barbara.

Connecting the cross beams and curved rafters with 3/8" all-thread rod.

Labeling galore! Four different, yet similar units, each with over 20 parts.

Assembly crew

Wait!

Let's move that 2,000 lbs. structure 10 feet to the right and twist 25 degrees...

Alright if Gerard says so!

My upholstery shop in the desert.

Thank god for Bernina sewing machines!

Details of the curtain tie-backs.

Riding the load of cushions and bolstiers over to the site!

Check out those details!

Stretching spandex for the shading using beans tied in little pouches.

Love the light effects on the shade clothes

Unique lighting also made of bamboo fills out our environment.

Designs by Kinetic Lighting.

the 'red palapa'

the 'yellow palapa'

the 'burgundy palapa'

the rockstars arrive!

Awesome nighttime environment!

Voyage of the Great A'tuin... Cob Oven!

2009-03-21T09:08:00.000-07:00

Teaching a cob oven workshop in Williams, Oregon.

Local clays and grasses to work with

Urbanite and strange concrete blocks to bury into the foundation.

Making adobe bricks to build up the foundation to a good baking height. I made a trapezoidal form so that we could easily create a 48" diameter circle.

Laying the adobes, with glass bottles inbetween

The insulation layer which will be underneath the baking surface. This layer of glass bottles and sawdust will help keep the heat in the oven from escaping through the mass of the base.

The baking surface made of kiln bricks and a wet sand dome which will serve as the mold for the oven.

After building up the first mass layer and arch for the doorway, we can remove the sand form.

Slip-Straw insulation layer next

about six inches thick

a small fire to speed up the drying from the inside out

Rough sculptural cob starts to form the turtle

Plaster samples to test the effects of our local soil

Plaster over the rough cob form

A test bake

Starting the mosaic

Eric and his oven!

A celestial mosaic on the front of the oven.

The Great A'tuin is holding up the world afterall.

Some more of the mosaic.

Jasmine, the owner's 10-year old daughter helped out a lot!

Earth & Lime Plasters at Aprovecho

2009-03-16T18:05:00.000-07:00

Ashley Aymond showing how to earth-plaster over lathe.

Lime plaster samples

Lydia Doleman mixes up the lime plaster

Bio-Char Kiln

2009-03-16T17:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome to low-tech charcoal production. You can make an earthen kiln to produce Bio-Char. Using ground charcoal as a soil amendment is proving to increase yeilds and sequester carbon among long lists of other positive benefits. We should all be adding it to our gardens and compost as the ancient cultures of the Amazon did. In the areas of the rainforest where this was practiced, there are still several feet of topsoil, also known as Terra Preta.

Google it if you're interested to learn more.

Now, for the earthen building part, this diagram I created shows the basic layers and features of the kiln and the following photos show how we built one.

We even added a thermal probe to test the temperature fall-off of the kiln and to ensure the quality of our charcoal. In Thailand, charcoal is often used for cooking because it smokes less and also for water filtration. This is an extremely important product in developing countries.

Then we grind the charcoal to get a small particle size.

adding wood vinegar to speed up the activation.

We measured out different ratios to test the effects of Bio-Char on seed germination.

We also planted test plots where we could compare the growth of Bio-Char amended soil and without.

We planted the same plants on each side of the test plot.

There will be an article in Permaculture Activist soon with the results of this study.

Part 8: Finishing Touches

2009-03-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

Sculpting the 'giving tree' in Tahn's room.

The luckiest four-year-old ever!

Trim detailing with burlap stapeled to the frame for a
mechanical connection with the plaster to wood.

Lime in the shower area.

Burnishing with balled up plastic bags to get a super smooth surface.

Reclaimed tile set into an interior arch sill.

The stairwell niche.

Making clay paints with tapioca starch paste.

Beautiful arch detailing so that you can still tell they were made from adobes.

A clay-paint mural I did in the entryway of Peggy and Jo's new home. It is based on a Thai proverb about the rice in the moon and the fish in the pond.

Part 7: Plaster

2008-12-30T04:23:00.000-08:00

The form of the building is almost complete and now for the artistic part! It's time to plaster the mud brick walls to help protect them and add strength and beauty to the building. First we learned about the different components that go into earthen plasters and the purpose of each layer: base or scratch coat, and finish coat. The clay we are using is a beautiful red, so the exterior will be plastered with a rough coat only for the time being. The mix for this one is 4 clay: 3 rice husks: 1 sand and water as needed (if the clay wasn't pre-soaked, it was about 4 in that ratio). On the interior we will have at least two coats, and a lime paint in some areas. We are also carving niches and doing a bit of sculptural work on the interior.

Creativity abounds!

Learning (through all the senses) about our materials

making sample "cookies"

the mudpit dance
Teresa and Martha really know how to work it!

Stevan shows us how it's done.

Benito window detailing

Peter builds up a corner

how many plasters can you fit on a wall?

the underside of the arch is the trickiest part!

Benito Steen really knows plasters and it's great to have him as out instructor

Oi carves a niche

three niches follow the stairs--

simply can't to plaster these, stay tuned for more pictures!

Cob Oven at the Wildflower Home

2008-12-19T00:29:00.000-08:00

I was invited to teach a cob oven workshop at the Wildflower Home, a center for young mothers in crisis, whose mission is to help lead these women towards self-reliance.

I was quite nervous to be teaching in a foreign language, but it went quite well leading by demonstration and the women had a total blast.

Part 6: Thatching

2008-12-19T00:12:00.000-08:00

Peggy teaches us about the local grasses used for thatching. This is by far the most common way to roof your home in this part of Thailand.

The grass is wrapped around a piece of split bamboo and tied tightly to it.

We use strips of bamboo to fasten each section of thatch on to the roof framing.

We thatch from the bottom up, each layer is about 4 iches above the previous row.

Thatch is a great way to roof in the tropics because hot air that accumulates in your home can natural vent out, while any rain that hits the material will run along the blade of grass and drip along the edge only. This system lasts quite long, the thatch will only need to be replaced about every five years.

Part 5: Roof Framing

2008-12-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

the roof takes shape

sitting on the top of the wall while installing rafters

Jackie, adding notches when needed

the framing is built directly into the mud brick walls

Part 4: Reclaimed Wood Floor

2008-12-18T23:42:00.000-08:00

spreaders buried at the end of each joist

leveling the joists

fitting each floorboard

packing the space behind the blocking with clay straw

a beautiful reclaimed wood patchwork floor

Part 3: Arches

2008-12-06T19:51:00.001-08:00

Probably the most fun aspect of using adobe is building arches. These make great door and window openings. And they the surprisingly strong and can bear a lot of weight. First, build a wooden form and support it at the level you want to start the arch. Then as you build arch the form, use a string attached to the center point to keep track of each brick's alignment.

You can also use stuffed bags to build a form.

In the case of our largest arch, that worked just fine!

Testing them out once they are dry is so much fun!

Part 2: Making bricks and Walls

2008-12-06T19:22:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the mudpit! The great thing about adobe bricks is that it's really easy to make the mix. You can use the clay in just about any hole you dig on the property and since we will be using a form to make the bricks and letting them dry in the sun, we don't need to worry about too much moisture in the mix. Thus, the pit becomes a creamy slurry and only requires simple walking around in it to mix well. This is also the same way we mix the mortar! For the brick mixture however, it is good to add a fiber component if you have one available. Adding fiber such as straw will increase the strength of the bricks and also make them more light weight. We added rice husks once we could get them.

Each brick will be 4 x 8 x 16 inches, so that we can use them in a variety of different positions. Packing the mud into forms...

Staring to lay the courses...

And probably the hardest part of it all... getting the bricks from the brickyard to the building site! We make it a group effort and have about 30 minutes of passing brickis on a 'brick line' each day.

The building takes shape!

Adobe Home for Peggy & Jo -- Part 1: Foundation

2008-12-06T18:49:00.001-08:00

Pouring your own foundation isn't as hard as it might seem. Here we created our foundation in less than a week. First we cleared the site and leveled the footprint area. Then we tamped the earth solid using garden hoes and a big log with handles attached to it.

Then we marked out the wall's locations using a peg with a rope attached for the circular portion of the house and the pythagorean theorem (a^2 + b^2 = c^2) for the extensions. We set up battens with string to mark the edges of the walls and then excavated a trench 15cm deep for the footings. (No need to worry about frost-heave here!)

In Thailand, plywood is a precious commodity, so we built our forms for the foundation stemwall using old adobe bricks lined with feedbags. What's great is that they support themselves so no hardware is required and they can be reused for building with later.

Then came the not-so-fun part, mixing concrete, but it can be fun if you have a lot of people and don't have too much to do of it. We set up a bucket brigade to supply the right ratio of sand and gravel that we would add to the cement. Onward!

Once the concrete was thoroughly mixed, we poured it into the forms. The next day, we removed the bricks and two days later we'd be building walls.

Natural Building Apprenticeship at Pun Pun Farm Thailand

2008-11-14T02:56:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Northern Thailand! Here now, I am staying put for a couple of months to learn about organic farming and earthen adobe building. So far the place has been simply wonderful and new experiences have been walking into my life in all sorts of ways.

I am living in a simple bamboo hut with three very large spiders. This took a while to be comfortable with, but I now see them as my protectors from all the other bugs. My daily schedule starts with yoga every morning at 7am. It is a very mindful practice and a great way to wake my body and set an intention for the day. Then we have breakfast around 8am. For me this consists of fresh papaya and bananas and homemade soymilk with barley and brown sugar. We have two work sessions throughout the day, 9am-12noon, lunch, and 1:30-4:30pm, these are dedicated to gardening and building. We each have our own garden beds and will be learning about seed saving once they are grown. The building project is a two story house for Peggy and Jo, the founders of Pun Pun. It’s a really beautiful design including a main circular form and rectangular extensions of from that. We will doing all aspects of the project with few resources, so there is a lot too learn, even for the experienced builders like myself. Once a week we have an Appropriate Technology Practicum, where we’ve been split into different group to build projects around the farm including rainwater catchment, UV water filtration, solar hot water production and testing the effects of Bio-char on garden beds. An amazing amount of information and practical application! We have a bit of free time before dinner where we can go swimming in the village reservoir (twenty minute walk through the village Mai Jo) or grab a pineapple coconut shake at the You Sabai Cafe on the neighboring property. You Sabai is a beautiful, peaceful place to read, contemplate, or meet with friends with a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains and daily sunset. Lunch and dinner are always healthy and delicious, we usually have brown rice with a soup full of organic vegetables or sticky rice with a spicy thai sauce and raw vegetables to mix with it. This is by far the healthiest eating I’ll have ever had for a prolonged period of time. It feels great! The evenings we usually have free, but on Monday nights we watch movies, mostly documentaries of current global concerns (my favorite!) and on Tuesdays we have a discussion group on globalization or on food production. We have lots of reading to do in preparation for these discussions, but so far I have learned a lot from them. I had no idea this place was going to be so academic. Other evenings we have been blessed with festivals in the local community and parties for birthdays of the folks in our group. There is nothing better than a chocolate cake when you haven’t had any sweets for a week.

Most of what I am learning here is actually about living simply and finding inner peace, which I am grateful to be able to focus on at this point in my life. I’ll try to keep this blog focused on the natural building aspects of what we are doing, but if you’d like to see more about the other things going on at Pun Pun, I’ll be starting a blog for that too. Stay tuned. Enjoy the photos!

2009 Natural Building Colloquium

2008-11-06T21:29:00.000-08:00

This year’s natural building colloquium was loads of fun! There was a great turn out of the full spectrum of builders from novice to very experienced and many who were leaders in activism and policy reform.

sky island

The site for this year's colloquium was Orella Ranch, a spectacular hilltop dropping off steeply into the Pacific Coast just north of Santa Barbara. Normally rented as a place for weddings, the facilities included one cob structure, a stage made from old wine barrels, a stone bar with concrete counter serving area, great camping and a prized lawn which we found many uses for. Just before the event we also built several bamboo structures to facilitate our presentation areas, bamboo showers, and several portable orchard toilets. ‘Sky Island’ as it became known, was an amazing place for our gathering of natural builders.

The hosts were also avid natural builders and environmentally concerned folks. And the thing that bothered them most about their business was that they always had to rent chemical port-a-potties for the weddings they would host. Naturally, with 70+ natural builders, we were able to conceive of a beautiful and functional way to deal with this problem. A Timberframe with six stalls was built by the owner and a ‘Watson Wick’ was built by Tom Watson himself to deal with 500 flushes per day. Then we were ready to have some fun, since each stall wall provided an opportunity to test a different wall system! These included various types of wattle and daub, light clay-straw, cob-mesh and more. The exterior walls were built using woven split bamboo and then plastering either side of the framework. In front of the structure we built a beautiful Manzanita privacy screen and hand washing area. I particularly enjoyed the end walls, because I got to try doing stained glass in a cob wall with out using lead—a technique I’ve been wanting to try for a while. I used cob rolled into tiny sausages to set each piece of glass and then pressed the mud around the edges of each piece. They turned out really good and I can only imagine where my new found art form will grow from here.

The most significant aspect of week however was not the building project, but the relationships and networking between the builders. I really started to feel my place in the community and how much each of our presences are needed in the movement. The support system that developed from this week alone is sure to carry me into the future and the projects of 2009 now feel totally do-able. Thank you all—you know who you are.

Plasters and Floors at the EcoNest Compund

2008-10-30T08:49:00.001-07:00

The beauty of earthen plaster work

the perfect mix!

troweling on over reed matting

Screeding an earthen floor for a sauna

Perhaps the best camp-spot ever, with a panoramic view of the mountains surrounding Teesuque, New Mexico

EcoNest Straw-Clay

2008-10-30T08:30:00.001-07:00

Originating in Europe (Germany) several hundred years ago, light straw-clay wall systems are proving to be one of the best natural building options. The walls are super-insulated, yet half the thickness of strawbale, thus gaining floor space and saving on material, and the straw is fully integrated with clay, thus protecting the straw from decay and adding thermal mass to the wall surfaces. The walls are also built using forms, so provide a very flat and even surface for plastering once dry. I am in love with the outcome and the process. EcoNest is leading the way in the United States for this system and it was an honor to study and build with them.

the tumbler machine

bamboo stabilizers

Once you have built the load-bearing timberframe and lightframe matrix, you're ready to pack the walls!

Raising the cupola onto the house
...early morning!

Timberframing at EcoNest

2008-09-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Tesuque, New Mexico. I'm here to study the EcoNest Building method of traditional timberframing and light-clay straw wall infill. The company is a husband-wife team, architect and builder, who specialize in totally non-toxic homes. These buildings are ablsolutely beautiful and a joy to design and build. Here are pictures from the timberframing part of the training. It's especially cool how they integrate japanese and european style bracing.

the workshop

Robert LaPorte

the Chain-Mortiser & I

what a beautful mortise

connecting the main japanese brace

the frame goes up!

Using come-alongs to secure the position

the timberframe team

the pine bough tradition, we've raised the frame