Natural building

Natural Building: Low-Tech & Low-Key
Instructor: Joshua Thornton
Fees: $350

Fees include lunch for participants on workshop days and camping accommodations.

This workshop will be focused on creating human habitat which exists somewhere in between a survival debris shelter, and a contemporary natural home built to code. It is a response to several questions that I have wanted to explore for quite some time, and would like to invite you to explore them with me. I want to provide natural housing solutions for the economically marginalized in North America. As this may soon describe a great many of us it seems this year is timely to offer this course.

The fact of the matter is, that life in North America is poised to fundamentally change. The population of squatters, globally will increase greatly over the next 25 years, people will need to become more migratory to respond to environmental, and economic pressures. The response to these challenges over the past fifty years has been mobile homes. These ‘homes’ offer neither a healthy living environment, nor are they well constructed.

This workshop will construct natural dwellings with a very small ecological and physical footprint. They will have self-contained systems of water sequestration, and purification. Furthermore they will have minuscule energy requirements as they make use of LEDs for lighting, and will couple very nicely with rocket stoves. The construction techniques will allow those with physical disabilities to gather and use materials directly from a building site to fabricate a very comfy home with which to survive comfortably. Unfortunately the building code frowns upon this sort of thing… for reasons we will discuss at the workshop.

Students will learn the theory of natural building systems, how to construct and detail walls to create flow through vapour permeable (aka “breathable”) wall systems. We will also cover aggregate clay infill systems, earth plasters, adobe floors, and design theory.

Where:
Flesherton, Ontario

For more information and to register, visit www.naturalbuild.ca, email [email protected] or phone Ali Lam 416-938-9354