Apprenticeship

Bouzov, Czech Republic, Central Europe

Instructor Max Vittrup Jensen & Carrie Campbell

http://permalot.org/en/internships

Join us for one or both of our summer internships.

Internship I: May 1 – July 11, 2010 10 weeks – 980 Euro
co-facilitated by Carrie Campbell & Max Vittrup Jensen

Internship II: International Relief work July 5 – August 28, 2010
8 weeks – 790 Euro
co-facilitated by Martina Petru & Max Vittrup Jensen.

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:

• Permaculture Principles and Methods

• 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

Hands on projects will include building a rocket mass oven, finalizing a Finnish mass oven, rainwater catchment systems, greywater filter systems, rough and fine earthen plastering, timber frame joinery, heated wall systems, straw bale, earthen floors, round pole construction, and living roofs.

Pine Ridge, South Dakota

Instructor: Coenraad Rogmans

http://www.HouseAlive.org

Tuition: $825

This workshop offers an incredibly rich learning experience that has made it our most popular for the last 5 years. During the workshop you will develop the confidence, knowledge and skills to design and build your own natural building and sustainable living project. This workshop is for you if you are interested in building your own natural cottage, want to use natural materials in you present house in the form of a “natural renovation”, or are looking to make some lifestyle changes.

House Alive workshops focus on “learning by doing;” be prepared to do a lot of building. Constructing a house takes determination and sustained physical activity. We believe building your own house can be possible for anyone and teach “democratic building” techniques: Simplicity of design, building in community, using simple hand tools, taking care of our bodies, and extreme affordability to free ourselves from debt. But you don’t have to build your own home to employ these techniques. You can improve the beauty, comfort, and affordability of any living space by employing “Natural renovation” techniques or using “appropriate technologies.”

mixing cob We will focus much of our hands-on time on building with cob. Cob is often considered the “mother” of all natural building techniques. It has been around for millennia, is practiced worldwide, and the materials can be locally harvested. Cob doesn’t rot or burn and offers great flexibility to shape spaces to fit our lives. You will learn how to find materials, mix them into cob material and build strong, beautiful walls. You also will learn how to deal with foundations and roofs, how to put in windows, doors, plumbing and electricity, how to easily add arches, niches, and other sculptural features, and how to finish buildings with earthen floors and plasters. Afternoons and evenings will include lectures and demonstrations on a wide variety of natural building and appropriate technology topics (see curriculum). Over the course of the workshop you will learn how to easily integrate various forms of natural construction, such as straw bale, light-straw-clay, adobe brick, natural plasters and floors, round wood, and more.

Please email welcome@housealive.org for more nfo.

Pine Ridge South Dakota/Jacksonville Oregon

Instructor: Coenraad Rogmans, James Thomson

http://www.housealive.org/

House Alive! is again offering an opportunity for people to get beyond the basics and experience an extended Natural Building apprenticeship. This immensely popular intensive course is designed for people who want to use natural building skills in a professional context or who want to take extra time to work on skill development for their personal project. Participants will get first-hand experience with every aspect of building a natural home, from the foundation to the roof. Learning how to build a natural home is one of the best investments you can make: once you know how to design, build and shape your own living space, you can save many thousands of dollars in living costs.

In many ways learning to build is like learning to play a musical instrument: It is hard to learn without another experienced person guiding you and, the more you do it the better you get. The apprenticeship program for 2010 offers 8 weeks of “hands-on” building, problem solving, designing and discussing all aspects of natural building, allowing you to take the time to develop new skills under the guidance of experienced natural builders.

This year’s apprenticeship takes place in two locations. We will start off in South Dakota by starting a 2 bedroom cob house on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (first 3 weeks). The reservation is incredibly beautiful, historically rich as well as tragic and is known as one of the poorest places in North America. After completing the site preparations for the building, apprentices will participate in an 8 day “complete Shelter” workshop along with other students.

please email welcome@housealive.org for more info.

Quail Springs in Southern California

Instructor: Justin Kirmse, Brock Anderson, and Lyn Giesecke

http://livingcraftproject.org

Tuition: $3000. Includes all costs of living at Quail Springs (organic food, spring water, camping, library, and facilities).

Living Craft Project happily announces the successful completion of the 2009 natural building apprenticeship, and invites six new dedicated students to join us for a six week natural building intensive. During the intensive, students will build a 150 square foot modified load-bearing strawbale cottage, and gain experience in finish work (hand-crafted earthen plasters and troweled earthen floors) on a 350 square foot strawbale home.

The intensive will be divided into modules designed to lead students through both the structural and finish aspects of building an earthen home, with a high level of attention to craftsmanship and skill. Modules include, but are not limited to: carpentry, wall and roof systems, materials harvesting and processing, earthen plasters, earthen floors, and clay artistry. Classroom discussions include, but are not limited to: foundation design, passive solar design, natural wall system design, and pattern language recognition.

The intensive is for a dedicated few who want to gain the hand skills to build safely and healthily. Each student will also have the opportunity to participate in the community of Quail Springs, with access to events and feasts of all kinds.

Shawnigan Lake, Vanocouver Island

Instructor: Elke Cole and others

http://www.ourecovillage.org

8-week Ecovillage internship offering broad introduction to natural building techniques including cob, straw bale, and Timber frame infill. Experienced instructors, real projects and community immersion. You will get a start into your natural building path and discover your gifts!

Davidsonville, MD

Instructor: Steve Kemble and Mollie Curry

http://mudstrawlove.com

Tuition: Paid stipend of $200/week

This apprenticeship has already begun, and we have room for more good folks like you! There is plenty of time left for learning all the steps.
WE want people who are serious about learning and practicing strawbale building techniques in the context of a real job setting.
Steve Kemble and Mollie Curry of MudStrawLove LLC out of Asheville, NC will lead the program. They have 35 years of combined experience with straw bale and other natural building techniques (see their website at www.mudstrawlove.com). Steve and Mollie will be teaching all the techniques associated with the bale wall assembly, including stacking, securing, shaping and prepping bales for plaster, cobbing, window and door details, electrical, mixing and applying interior earthen plasters. There may be opportunities for learning lime plastering techniques as well. You will be working with the strawbale team 40 hours/week (Tues-Saturday) on the construction of a straw bale house in Davidsonville, Maryland. In addition to learning and practicing strawbale construction methods, you will apply your newly acquired knowledge by helping train and lead volunteer crews each Saturday.

The project is a two-story house that incorporates other green features such as passive solar design, locally harvested and milled lumber, photovoltaics, and geothermal heating/cooling as well as straw bale and local clay plasters. The foundation and roof will be completed prior to your arrival. Apprentices can live on site, either in their own tent, or in a shared 3 bedroom (partial strawbale) house. The farm on which the house is situated has a pool, a tennis court, miles of trails, and an organic herb-growing operation, and is located near Annapolis, the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore, and DC.

The apprenticeship includes housing (limited) or tent site and a $200/week cash stipend. Full or part-time (paid) employment is possible after the apprenticeship to complete the plastering. Apprentices are expected to be strong workers committed to learning about strawbale construction.

Please contact MudStrawLove to set up a telephone interview at  (828)775-4823.

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.