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Cob Building Workshop: Natural building Intensive: FULL


  • Hawk Meadow Farm 5066 Mott Evans Road Trumansburg, NY, 14886 United States (map)

This is a full immersion 4 day workshop where students will help construct a 8x12 Outhouse building. The building will be made of 4 separate natural building wall systems. Cordwood, Strawbale, Cob and Light Clay Straw walls. Students will actually experience working with different wall systems to see the advantages and disadvantages of all of them. We will construct a natural stone foundation for our walls to sit on. Students will also help construct the roof. The roof will use round black locust posts and other wood milled on site. You will learn a variety of natural building skills in this workshop and gain the confidence that will be needed for you to become an earthen builder and construct a building on your own property.

What you’ll learn

  • Basic natural building techniques and skills used for building complete natural homes.

  • Natural design strategies and biomimicry strategies to make spaces healthier, more sustainable and alive.

  • The science of identifying building materials from the environment, Identifying the right materials and how to process them.

Organic Homemade lunch will be included in the workshop along with drinks throughout the day. If you would like to camp on site please inquire. It is a $475 for this 4 day workshop.

Please email Matteolundgren@gmail.com to reserve your spot.

After this workshop, you will feel confident that you can

  • build yourself a cob structure

  • remodel, renovate an existing home, using natural materials

  • use cob to create garden walls, outdoor fireplaces…

Here is a beautiful summation written by my Mentor Conrad Rogue: “Earth is the mother of all building materials. For millennia, and all over the world, people have used earth to build beautiful, simple, efficient and inexpensive homes. It's plentiful, ecological and non-toxic. Plus, it can't burn, won't rot and is much simpler to build with than conventional construction.

We will teach you how to use clay-soil to build just about everything. From strong structural cob walls, to using strawbales and clay plaster, to beautiful earthen floors….

The essence of your learning experience will revolve around developing a deep understanding of how to process and combine a few simple materials: clay-soil, sand and straw. How you apply that in your building adventures is then up to you, but you will find the possibilities endless and exciting.”