Image courtesy of Scilit (left), http://flickr.com/photos/scilit/1891513939/, and Choudhury Bijan (right)
On-site projects at Wild Earth Stewardship Center: Through our ongoing projects at the Center, we are able to share hands-on natural building learning opportunities with all visitors, test out designs and techniques in the field, and perfect models for our community installation projects. We build using a variety of natural building methods and materials including timber framing, cob, adobe, wattle and daub, bamboo, and earthen finishes.
Off-site community outreach projects: Through our offsite natural building community installation projects, we create opportunities for communities, workshop attendees, and volunteers to learn natural building techniques together, while at the same time implementing solutions for much needed infrastructure improvements, or for new community spaces such as schools, health centers, nurseries for community gardens, composting toilets, and community centers.
Please check out our natural building techniques and community projects page to learn more.
Natural building techniques empower people to build in a way that considers the environmental impact on the Earth, uses minimally refined and manufactured, non-toxic, natural materials that are readily available, connects rather than separates us from our natural environment, and is socially and culturally sensitive, affordable, and beautiful.
Natural building exemplifies a fundamental shift away from a modern building industry entrenched in socially, culturally, and environmentally destructive practices. Using local, abundant materials eliminates the damaging effects of transporting materials hundreds or even thousands of miles. Natural building connects us to the environmental cost of each structure we construct, enabling us to include thoughtful, whole-system designs, and integrated, site-specific solutions. It empowers people to design and build for themselves, encourages creativity and community, and allows for the participation of all ages and skill levels.
“I want to live in a society where people are intoxicated with the joy of making things”
--W.M.S. Coperthwaite
Many of the setbacks that rural and forest-dependent communities suffer stem from a lack of adequate infrastructure and the necessary information, techniques, and funding to create and maintain them.
Destructive modern building practices are rapidly replacing traditional, culturally-sensitive, natural building techniques throughout the world, resulting in a wide-spread loss of people with the knowledge and skills required to build naturally for themselves and their communities. To combat this loss, we are dedicated to practicing, learning, and teaching natural building techniques—especially to those who are traditionally excluded from such opportunities.
Improving and building community infrastructure projects as a part of the workshops we host, enables us to help communities create lasting solutions to their building problems, while fostering creative information exchange and the potential for socio-economic advancement by passing on the necessary knowledge and skills to encourage and create jobs that value craftsmanship and living in harmony with the environment.
