February 2010 Volume I
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Greetings From Cal-Earth Institute
A Note From Dastan Khalili & Sheefteh Khalili
Dear Cal-Earth Supporters,
2009 was a very exciting year at Cal-Earth! We accomplished so much and we would like to share some of those accomplishments with you, our dedicated supporters. In 2009 Cal-Earth completely revamped the Intensive Workshop program as well developed an amazing long-term apprenticeship curriculum. We had over 150 students in our workshops, and countless thousands of visitors for Open House and tours.
We hosted multiple schools for field trips, ranging from elementary school through college, and we even had the opportunity to put on an entire program for a group of underprivileged youth to learn to build. The program, entitled, "Dream Camp" was four days in June 2009 and over 40 people were at Cal-Earth working together to build an unbreakable home. It was a wonderful experience for everyone involved, especially the teenagers who were empowered to build a future, and a home, for themselves.
Not only did we accomplish great things on-site, but off-site as well. In July of 2009, a team from Cal-Earth was invited to Hollywood to build a dome to be featured on the new program on HGTV called "The Outdoor Room". The episode will be airing in the coming months — there are more details in the following pages of the newsletter. We hope this exposure will encourage more people to become involved in this work and extend our larger network of builders and supporters. Cal-Earth also made
great strides in the development of our future international workshop program by supporting some of our alumni who hosted workshops in New Zealand and Australia. Currently, we are working with groups in Spain, Mexico, Egypt, Iran, Argentina, and most recently, Haiti, to put together future workshops in those countries. There is an article in this newsletter about our plans in Haiti, please read it and see if you are able to help us in our relief efforts.
In 2009 Cal-Earth also released a new website, which has a full online store and films available for download. We are hoping to be able to release downloadable books as well in 2010 so people throughout the world can access the materials immediately. We are currently working on other educational materials and films to be published in the near future so that anyone could read all the books and watch the DVDs and be ready to begin building.
This March will mark the two year anniversary of the loss of our father and founder of Cal-Earth Institute, Nader Khalili. It has been difficult, but we have carried on with his vision, and now we are thriving, which is a true testament to the work he left behind for humanity. We have an amazing team of instructors and apprentices, along with all of our alumni and extended community of supporters who have come together to carry on this unbelievably important work. We continue to go forward with these words from our father, "Anybody in this world should be able to build a shelter for his or her family with the simplest of elements — earth, water, air, and Fire." Welcome to our Newsletter, Elements, and thank you for your continued support — 2010 is going to be an amazing year.
Yours Sincerely,
Dastan Khalili, President
Sheefteh Khalili, Chief Financial Officer
2010 Workshop Season
Learn to Build
If you have a vision for building your home, a community, or even helping others to build theirs, stop and consider the hands-on Workshops or Apprenticeship Course at Cal-Earth Institute in California. Give us a few days of your time and we will teach you hands-on how to build your home, your school, your career, or your entire community, without cutting down a single tree; by using the earth under your feet and utilizing the elements of earth, wind, water and fire.
- Topics Covered:
- The principle of the arch
- Superadobe basics
- Soils practicum and discussion
- Superadobe & plaster workshop with stabilized earth
- Learning to read blueprints, elements of design, placing windows and doors
- Contrasting domes with vaults, vaulted roofing system, dome geometry
- Site planning, orientation, simple solar passive strategies
- Compass theory and application
- Waterproofing, foundations
Upcoming Dates Winter/Spring/Summer 2010
February 24 - 27 Four-day workshop
March 22 - 27 One-week workshop
April 19 - 24 One-week workshop
May 17 - 22 One-week workshop
June 14 - 19 One-week workshop
July 7 - 10 Four-day workshop
Tragedy Strikes Haiti
On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. Hundreds of thousands of homes have been lost as well countless lives. Tent cities have risen, and rebuilding plans are being discussed. Cal-Earth is currently putting together a proposal to be part of the reconstruction effort. it is our hope to raise $20,000 in order to fund a team of 10-15 trained Cal-Earth apprentices to travel to Haiti for a one month workshop training. We need to take all the materials with us as well (sandbags, barbed wire, shovels, tampers, etc.) because it will be impossible to find the resources while we are there, so the donations will go towards that as well. We are currently in communication with various other organizations as well as the Ministry of Housing in Haiti in order to organize the workshop which will teach local people to build emergency shelters as well as larger structures to support both short and long-term rebuilding. If you are interested in joining the relief effort please sign up for one of our upcoming workshops.
To make a donation, please visit: http://calearth.org/donate.html
Featured Alumni Project:
Aaron Musicant — Santa Barbara
Aaron Musicant took a workshop at Cal-Earth in September and immediately went home to start building. His family's home perished in the fires that raged through Santa Barbara, California this summer and Aaron saw superadobe as a solution. Not only did he build a dome — he did a lot of the work himself by getting creative with ways to handle filling and laying the bag solo. On the weekends he had help from someone who was local and interested in learning how to build with earthbags. Additionally there was sporadic help from friends and a couple work party days. He built a single 12 ft diameter dome, with one small apse for a fire place. It took roughly 3 months to get the bag laid, the dome waterproofed, plastered, backfilled, the floor poured, the windows installed and the fireplace plastered and fire ready. His budget was $1900. This is a great starter project after taking one of our workshops.
Featured Product
Emergency Sandbag Shelter:
How to Build Your Own
We live on earth
yet so ignorant
of earth and all
the treasures it holds
-Rumi
Emergency Sandbag Shelter is a must-have manual for every home, as an emergency guide. Now for the first time this book is made available to people around the world by its inventor, award-winning architect Nader Khalili, whose specialty was skyscrapers and who
Cal-Earth is on HGTV
Cal-Earth is hitting the big screen. Well, the various sized screens in your living rooms. We will be featured on an episode of Home and Garden Television's show, The Outdoor Room. Our Cal-Earth crew went to the Hollywood Hills to build a structure as part of a backyard makeover. We can't tell you
too much or we'll spoil the fun. Catch us on HGTV. Our episode date will be posted on the website soon. http://www.hgtv.com/the-outdoor-room-with-jamie-durie/show/index.html
Rumi Corner
come
let's fall
in love
again
let's turn
all the dirt
in this world
to shiny gold
come
let's be
a new spring
a love re-born
find our aroma
from the
essence
of all who
emit heavenly
fragrance
like a fresh tree
bloom and
spread
all the blessings
right from inside
Poem #16 Rumi Fountain of Fire
translations by Nader Khalili
About Cal-Earth
Institute
Cal-Earth (The California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture) is a 501 (C)3 non-profit/charitable foundation at the cutting edge of Earth and Ceramic Architecture technologies today. Founded in 1986 by its director, Nader Khalili (1936-2008), its scope spans technical innovations published by NASA for lunar and Martian construction, to housing design and development for the world's homeless for the United Nations.
Continuing in his tradition, Khalili's associates and apprentices are dedicated to research and education of the public in environmentally oriented arts and architecture. Its philosophy is based on the equilibrium of the natural elements of earth, water, air, fire, and their Unity at the service of the arts and humanity.
About Elements Newsletter
"Elements" is a publication of Cal-Earth Inc., edited by
Sheefteh Khalili, Thanks to Heather Carragher and Bridget
Butler for their help with this issue. The first issue of the
original "Elements" was published in 1985 by Cal-Earth
(formerly Geltaftan Foundation).
