May 2011 Volume VII

SPAIN, MEXICO, & COLOMBIA WORKSHOPS PLANNED

A Note From Dastan Khalili & Sheefteh Khalili

We are excited and proud to announce three more international workshops planned this year. Information for each workshop is below — please spread the word and let others know about these workshops, they will all be taught in a combination of Spanish and English and cover all the main topics taught at Cal-Earth. The specific details of each workshop can also be found here.

Director's Corner: Spanning Two Worlds

My partner and I recently bought a wrecked old house not far from Cal-Earth. The house was vandalized by thieves seeking copper piping. Through some remarkable good fortune, however, the home owners insurance from the previous owners was still active and we were able to make a claim for 80% of the damage. Many things were replaced including floors and countertops but the last remaining bathroom countertop was NOT replaced because it had not been damaged in the break-ins. This remaining countertop was hideous and the contractor wanted $300 to do the job without insurance payment. We decided that this was too much and that we should just go ahead and do a home-grown, earthen counter-top ourselves. It came out great, we solved our problem, and it cost us less than $20.00!

Now... you might be wondering what this all has to do with Cal-Earth? Under the creative and technical leadership of Mark Harmon, there has been all kinds of experimentation with interior finish work. We did earthen tiles inside one of our recently renovated pre-existing houses on the Cal-Earth campus and went on to do a series of countertops in a similar fashion with each effort building on the knowledge gained from previous efforts. With some successes and some less-than-perfect results, we came to understand exactly what it takes to do a plaster countertop of the highest caliber and something whose beauty is really just unmatched by anything commercially available. What we are talking about here is something of an art piece. It might be worth adding, for those who are new to the work of Cal-Earth and architect Nader Khalili, that there has always been a tradition of art and invention at Cal-Earth going back many years and spanning things like hand-crafted animal sculptures, to many ceramic-orientated experiments and production. When we are not teaching or doing super-adobe work directly, forays into art and ceramics often occur.

So back to the story at my own house... Sometime after we'd finished doing our own countertop, our contractor showed up again and got his eye on it. He loved it and wouldn't stop talking about it whenever we saw him! Something about the hand-sculpted look really captured him and the price... who could possibly argue with that?

It is now one month later and my partner just gave a tour of Cal-Earth to a visitor. The tour began routinely, but at the conclusion of the tour, the visitor said that he heard about Cal-Earth through one of his employees who wouldn't shut up about some sort of "mud" countertop he'd seen at a job-site near Cal-Earth! Pretty soon my partner and the visitor came to understand that the countertop in question was ours and that the contractor who'd been working on our house had said so much about this "mud" countertop that his boss (the visitor) had to come and check out Cal-Earth for himself. Well... he just signed up for a workshop today and this is a guy who runs a contracting company doing large volumes of conventional renovations. Our simple little "mud" countertop triggered a whole chain of events which resulted in this individual signing up to learn how to do the super-adobe work for himself. I think this is heartening since it may seem that our work with earthen architecture is on the fringe somehow or that it is just not within the aesthetic comfort zone of most people. Yet here we have an experienced contractor who sees something in this work and who has decided that it is beautiful enough that he wants to be able to incorporate it into his own personal and professional life.

We often underplay the importance of cultural and aesthetic acceptability when we talk about this architecture and yet these two things are perhaps the most important factors to any hope of widespread adoption of this work. To see earth architecture finding its way into the mainstream is exciting and needed. And this is why Nader Khalili decided to build the house known as Earth One.

Earth One was designed to be a hybrid; to span the sometimes hard-to-cross gulf between conventional housing and earthen housing. The longer I'm around this work, the more I'm convinced that earth architecture and earthen arts are going to take their place amongst the other choices that consumers want for their homes and for their furnishing. The longer I am around earthen materials and natural elements, the more I see that others, whose tastes may be characterized as more mainstream, are ready to embrace this work and that right now, at this time when societies all over the world are in such flux, this work can now safely span the two worlds of "conventional" and "alternative" without so much as a single comment as to it's merits, or it's beauty, or it's affordability ... except, perhaps ... "where do I learn how to do this?"

Ian Lodge
Cal-Earth Site Director

2011 Workshop Season

Interested in Studying Long Term? Now Accepting Applicants for May and September

As you may know, Cal Earth is in a dynamic state of growth and expansion. We have always attributed our successes to our students and apprentices — under the good leadership and inspiration of founding architect Nader Khalili.

The long term apprenticeship program is geared more to those who might like to make a career out of this work or who might like to teach and train others in sustainable or "green building". Those interested in designing or building an eco-village would be advised to sign up for the long-term apprenticeship. Additionally, the program will prepare you to lead a larger and more complex project-perhaps for a client or community.

The long-term apprenticeship is 3 months long-- or more, upon agreement with Cal Earth. Clearly, the longer an apprentice is at Cal Earth, the more deeply the subjects will be understood. Programs begin each February, May, and September. Furthermore, many other opportunities to learn other building skills like plumbing and electrical can be picked up during the long-term apprenticeship. We have a list of necessary criteria for successful completion of a long-term apprenticeship and the fulfillment of these criteria is followed by an off-site building project which must be professionally executed. Long-term apprenticeships must begin with a one-week workshop during which evaluation and determination will take place.

After the program is successfully completed there may be many opportunities for teaching, training, traveling overseas — and all manner of future endeavors. If anyone is interested in the long-term or one-week apprenticeship programs, please contact Cal Earth.

Combined Superadobe and Permaculture Workshop — November 2011

Cal-Earth Institute and Midwest Permaculture are combining their recognized and established certificate trainings for a rare and powerful learning opportunity!

Dates: November 8-19, 2011 (12 days total- 4 day Superadobe Workshop, 8 day Permaculture Design Workshop)

Cost: $2500 (includes Cal-Earth Workshop Certificate of Completion, Full set of Cal-Earth Books and DVDs, Permaculture Design Course Certificate, Permaculture Design Book, Access to both Cal-Earth & Midwest Permaculture Forum) As with all Cal-Earth workshops, some partial scholarships are available.

Topics Covered by Midwest Permaculture: Observations and Patterns, Principles and Ethics of Permaculture, Designing for Different Climatic Zones, Soils, Plants, and Trees, Guilds and Polycultures, Water and Earthworks, Utilizing Micro-climates, Aquaculture, Planning the Homestead, Bio-Fuels, Urban and Suburban Permaculture, and others. Visit the website for a full list.

Full workshop details can be found on the website at: http://calearth.org/permaculture

Featured Alumni Project: Joshua Tree, CA
Lisa Starr — Bonita Domes

Alumni members Gabriel and Lisa Starr attended the week long Cal-Earth workshop in the month of April in 2010. They later purchased the double Eco-Dome blueprints from Cal-Earth and returned to their 2.5 acre plot of land for the ground breaking ceremony in June of 2010. Located on Bonita Ave, they appropriately named their future private home retreat, “Bonita Domes.” “Bonita Domes is the dream that was calling me about building my own house, building community and working and playing with the earth within my spiritual practice. I kept following my heart and spirit and somewhere along the line of that calling out, the dream met me. I think we are coming to a time where the other side is meeting us to make us whole and complete”, says Lisa. On February 15, 2011, Lisa and Gabriel received their building permit from San Bernardino County to build a double Eco-Dome in Joshua Tree, California.

This approximately 900 square foot structure includes a bedroom, a living room, (which can double as an extra bedroom) a kitchen with a breakfast niche, 2 baths, 2 wind scoops and 4 additional niche spaces. Regarding the layout, Gabriel notes, “We wanted to create a courtyard. So, we folded the footprint at a 90 degree angle to create this courtyard, which also creates protection from the wind. We also wanted to see how the domes perform on 2 different axes - one dome is oriented east/west, while the other is north/south. In addition, this allows us to create a smaller footprint within our limited space.” The Cal-Earth alumni core crew members include John Chambers, James Golub, Jason (Bigtree) MacDonald, Lori (Fox) McBride and J Roberts.

The project began by building a 12 ft. bath house dome and two 8 ft. “sleeping pod” domes for the crew members. Cal-Earth alumni members, Jackson Barlow, Charlie Kain, Patrick Kane, Will Morgan and Ashley Wieczorek were instrumental in building these preliminary structures.

After much preparation and perseverance, Lisa, Gabriel and the core crew began laying bag on the double Eco-Dome structure on April 28, 2011. Lisa projects that it will take 10-12 weeks to complete the shell structure. Crew member Lori McBride remarks, “We work Monday through Thursday 8-5. But, sometimes we are required to work longer to finish the day’s work and that may mean a couple of extra hours. Personally, this is a very advancing project for me because even though I have learned a lot with my past projects, there’s always more to learn with a new crew and new creative minds. We learn from each other. It’s the biggest project that I’ve worked on and it’s quite complex, which requires a lot of focus.”

Cal-Earth wants to congratulate Lisa, Gabriel and everyone involved with the Bonita Domes project. Beautiful dreams can truly become beautiful domes! For more information about the Bonita Domes project, you can visit their Facebook page.

Featured Product
Designing with Nature

Cal-Earth Sweatshirts!

In addition to our wonderful hats and t-shirts, Cal-Earth has recently release a brand new embroidered sweatshirt, now available for sale on the website. Cal-Earth is planning to release other products this year as well for all our fans out there who want to spread the word. It is our hope to be able to supplement our income as a nonprofit through the sale of these great products. Available in navy blue, forest green, and brown in sizes S-XL, this lovely hooded zip-up sweatshirt is 100% organic cotton and can be purchased for $42. To purchase please visit our online store:
http://calearth.org/shop

Open House at Cal-Earth

Rumi Corner