Tuition: $250

We are happy to announce this year’s West Coast colloquium taking place in Southern Oregon. This “peer-only” gathering will take place at beautiful Camp Latgawa, the site of several colloquiums over the last 10 years. Natural builders from around the region and the country will come together to re-connect, reflect, and rejuvenate during a week of informal presentations, conversations, and hands-on building projects.

About the Natural Building Colloquium:

The Natural Building Colloquium began almost 15 years ago as a way for the members of the fledgling Natural Building movement to gather, share information, learn from one another, get inspired, and basically have a good time. The movement has grown a lot since then, and the colloquiums continue to be a valuable opportunity for people in the field to connect with one another.

If you did not receive an invitation to this event and would like one, please contact James: james@housealive.org.

It’s the sixth year that the PeaceWeavers have hosted this family-friendly event at the Thunder Mountain Retreat Center near Bath, New York, offering very full days of teaching, learning, building, and networking. Top experts, authors, educators, innovators, designers, and builders offer hands-on experience and educational presentations with “close to the earth” building materials and lifestyle choices.

But in the end, there’s one really important thing that makes these events amazing. Sure, there’s all kinds of new, fun, valuable things to learn — tactile, hands-in-the-mud stuff that you just don’t get from the books or the internet. Sure, people can pick up tricks and tips to save precious days and months of misdirected time and effort, as well as thousands of dollars of misspent money, on their own projects and in their lives. Sure, there’s the great food, the beautiful natural setting, the music, and so much more. But in the end, the most rewarding and inspiring thing is the rare privilege of being with so many talented, smart, caring, willing, extraordinary people… some of whom just happen to be world-class natural builders, sustainable thinkers, and do-gooders. It’s the people — all of them — who come together at Thunder Mountain that are the best thing of all.

Website: http://www.peaceweavers.com/bws/

Finished Colloquium Project. Orella Ranch, CALIF. – 9 May 2009 – Many hands and hearts joined together before, during and after the Natural Building Colloquium last October. Guner Tautrim has posted photos of the completed multi-unit Watson Wick toilet project that so many of you participated in.

Thanks to all the good people who supported Orella Ranch on this project – and thanks to Guner for sharing these photos!
View Photos here »

October 19-26, 2008 —
Santa Barbara, California, USA

Update:

To see photos and an excellent article about the 2008 International Natural Building Colloquium visit Kelly Hart’s site, and Mark Piepkorn’s site.

To see photos and an excellent article about the 2008 International Natural Building Colloquium visit Kelly Hart’s site, and Mark Piepkorn’s site.

What’s the difference between a “Gathering” and a “Colloquium”?

A Natural Building Gathering is intended to welcome all interested in Natural Building to learn from presenters, through lecture and hand’s-on experience. Lots of building usually happens and the curious to the passionate come together to get dirty, build community and learn. These events are usually organized regionally, bioregionally, or locally.

Natural Building Colloquium etymology

Latin colloquium, from colloqui to converse, from com- + loqui to speak. The originators of the Natural Building Colloquium chose the name because this ancient definition matched the intention of the original gathering. That is, Natural Builders coming together to talk, to share, and to meet. This event has very few building projects and is generally organized by private invitation to people working in or integrally supporting the movement.

Natural Building Colloquium History

In 1994, the Cob Cottage Company organized the first Alternative Building Colloquium, inviting Natural Builders and teachers from around the country to spend a week together in Oregon. The idea was for these leaders to meet each other, to share the building techniques they knew best, and to begin to join their various philosophies and experiences into a more cohesive system of knowledge.

During that gathering, and the annual Natural Building Colloquia that have followed at sites around North America, hundreds of people from diverse backgrounds attended workshops on wall building systems ranging from adobe to wattle and daub/ roofing techniques including sod and thatch; and foundation systems including the rubble trench, dry stone, and rammed earthbags.

Through lectures, slides, and demonstrations, innovators presented their work with structural testing and building codes; composting toilets and graywater systems; designing with natural forces; co-housing; creating sacred space; and a hundred other topics. The energy and enthusiasm of the group were expressed physically in the construction of ornate timber frames, experimental straw bale vaults, and multi-colored clay murals. Ideas and techniques collided and merged, coalescing into hybrid structures including a straw bale/cob dome and a straw bale/cob/light-clay/wattle and daub cottage on a stone and earthbag foundation.

From the seed of these colloquia, a new movement has been born. The many disparate efforts to relearn ways of building with local materials and adapt them to modern needs have been brought together into a single conceptual basket with an easily understood name: ‘Natural Building.’

From The Art of Natural Building, Introduction by Michael G. Smith. Used with Permission.