The 2009 Natural Building Colloquium will take place in Oregon in about four weeks. It is hosted by the Natural Building Network and includes: Pre-fabricated strawbale panels with Chris Magwood; Earthen floor contracting for residential and commercial buildings with Sukita Crimmel; Bamboo roof structure for cob entry way project with Darrel Deboer; Integrating natural building into the urban environment in Portland with new codes and techniques, with Joshua Klyber; Report on the first code approved straw bale in Portland from Lydia Doleman.
DATE: 18-24 October 2009: LOCATION: Camp Latgawa, Rogue National Forest, Oregon. “This beautiful camp is nestled in a secluded valley in the Rogue National Forest in Southern Oregon. Beautiful fir trees tower above 2 crystal clear streams that boast populations of endangered Coho Salmon. The grounds of the camp are home to several natural building projects created during previous colloquiums. These include earthen ovens and sculptures, stone benches, round-wood furniture, wood sheds, a sweat lodge, a labyrinth, and a naturally renovated cabin from the early 20th century.Colloquium participants will stay in one of several comfortable dormitory-style cabins (no need for a tent!). All meals will be freshly prepared by the camp hosts, Eva and Greg.”
Info: https://groups.google.com/group/nbco-2009
A Kazakh family constructs a yurt for a wedding party northwestern China.
the crucial moment in building a reciprocal frame roof of round wood on top of a cobwood roundhouse.
Yestermorrow is a school for building in the Green Mountains of Vermont. It’s a great place. This video shows time lapse images of a class doing the foundation and framing of a mortise-and-tenon house in 2008.. More information available at https://www.yestermorrow.org.
Nice film of building a beautiful cob oven on a stone base in Costa Rica:
The Steens, authors of The Strawbale House and the more recent—and excellent—Small Strawbale: Natural Homes, Projects & Designs, have a photo and fact-filled blog on natural building: https://www.caneloproject.blogspot.com/
-Photo of country mill in France by Bill Steen. July, 2009
This magnificent outdoor theater on Mt. Tam in Mill Valley, Calif., was built in 1936 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Here are some of the seats.
From July 29 NYTimes: A former Forest Service cabin in the Pactola Lake basin of Black Hills National Forest, about 20 miles west of downtown Rapid City is on the market for $89,900.
A refurbished 1965 Boeing 727 hotel suite in the jungles of Costa Rica:
“Think of it as a giant Erector Set. Grid Beam is a great way to make working prototypes of furniture, experimental vehicles and even small buildings. If your idea doesn’t work, you can change it until it does. If you don’t need it anymore, Grid Beams are easily demountable and ready to use for the next project. I find the ability to try ideas quickly in analog form to be a huge advantage. With nothing simulated, you know for sure it works, not merely that it should work. A drawing can lie to your client or worse, to you. Grid Beams never lie. The book illustrates a remarkable array of projects, all real, and many actually at work. Inspiring!”
— J. Baldwin
From CoolTools:
