About Our Natural Building Workshops

Natural building workshops teach how to use locally sourced materials such as wood, straw bales and the earth from under your feet, to create homes that are beautiful, sustainable, cost effective, and can be built with minimal expertise.

Earth, Hands and Houses run natural building workshops and provide natural building architect services based on the experience of the founder Paulina Wojciechowska, a qualified architect who has over 20 years of experience natural building with earthbags, straw bales and clay plasters.

Paulina gave up her career as an architect in London in 1996 to follow her passion for building with natural materials. She spent years working alongside the pioneers of natural building. Her work with earthbag construction saw her spend months working alongside Nader Khalili at Cal-Earth, the inventor of the earthbag system. A few years later she went on to write one of the first books on earthbag construction, “Building with Earth". Her work with straw bale construction and clay plastering lead her to live and work with leading experts Bill and Athena Steen. Her inquisitive mind ensured she pushed and tested everything that was possible with these natural building technologies. It is that deep knowledge, along with her desire to bring people together in an atmosphere of fun and friendship, that is at the core of the natural building workshops run by Earth, Hands and Houses.

What makes Earth, Hands and Houses natural building workshops unique is that they are usually based around real building projects, where you can gain first hand experience of how to create a real-world structure. Add in the warm, open and friendly atmosphere that Paulina creates, and you have an opportunity to gain deep knowledge, have great fun, and make like minded friends all at the same time.