Tag Archive: apprentiship

Bouzov, Czech Republic, Central Europe

Instructor Martina Petru & Max Vittrup Jensen

http://permalot.org/en/internships

Join us for the second  of our 2 summer internships.

Internship II: International Relief Work  8 weeks – 790 Euro

PermaLot is establishing a holistic model for solutions to peak oil, climate change, financial crises, and food/water scarcity. Become part of a new trade of builders ready to meet the challenges and the opportunity of the 21st century, with training and skill development in:

• International Relief Work utilizing the SPHERE certificate model

• Permaculture Principles and Methods, course include permaculture design certification

• Hands-on low tech and mechanized building methods

• Conscientious design applications that relate to the planet, place, and project.

• Healthy building materials such as straw bale, cob, earthen building, living roof systems, and alternative energy.

• You’ll learn -and live- community design & building with weekly sessions on conflict prevention and Non-Violent communication

Vancouver Island, BC Canada

O.U.R. Natural Building Passport Skillbuilder 2009 is a concentrated Learning Internship at O.U.R. ECOVILLAGE. This Program is for participants who wish to learn foundational design and construction of Natural Building. It is O.U.R. ECOVILLAGE hope that we can help create a further pool of inspired, committed, and skilled Natural Builders who will widen the circle of people who are working within the field of ecologically design and construction. Though always on the edge of new innovations, and testing new opportunities, it is O.U.R. primary interest to construct buildings which can be lived in, or used legally, plus serve as a demonstration for other builders, homeowners, designers/engineers, and regulatory authorities.

Elke Cole, resident natural builder at O.U.R.ECOVILLAGE, will lead this comprehensive training program. This new program differs greatly from previous years and will be a concentrated format. With a combination of Elke Cole as the lead teacher/facilitator, the program will offer a diverse array of other facilitators for various learning modules within the program. The training is run in conjunction with O.U.R. ’2nd Generation Internship’ where previous Interns are hired to help lead the facilitation and construction processes onsite.

www.ourecovillage.org

Santa Fe, New Mexico
www.econest.com At its finest, building a handcrafted home is a soulful experience combining art, science and craft and involving mind, body and soul. The knowledge and skill to build mindfully is not learned overnight. The EcoNest Company realizes the vital importance of passing this craft on to the next generation and offers apprenticeship programs to promising individuals who feel a calling to make fine ecological home building their life’s work.

After an extraordinary year of working on a variety of sustainable and conventional building projects throughout Canada and the US, I’ve been back in Canada doing a bit of consulting and renovating, studying for LEED and looking for interesting projects near home and further afield to fill the next year.

There was a fair amount of time on the trip home to reflect on the statement that Jack Stephens made at the International Natural Building Colloquium 2008: “We need to build more GOOD buildings.” It reminded me of the first exam essay I had to write in Architecture 101, about the Vitruvian trilogy of Firmitas, Utilitas and Venustas – the three essential traits of “good” buildings. In the vocabulary of sustainable building, these are roughly translated as durability, functionality, and beauty.

In terms of creating good, sustainable buildings, current guidelines and literature generally agree about the basics of design, material selection and installation. As I’ve traveled and worked since finishing the Sustainable Building Design and Construction program at Fleming College, I’ve found that detailing and durable building design practices vary widely. Some of these differences are characterized as matters of opinion or regional variation, while in other cases I’ve found many owner-builders and beginning builders are reluctant to dig for guidance about construction details in long narratives about alternative building.

Continue Reading…