Building with earth: Paulina and her passion…
Workshops are always lots of fun!
A 2 day, weekend workshop on planning your natural home.
Taught by an architect and earthbag author Paulina Wojciechowska.
This workshop can be scheduled upon demand, dates to suit you. It needs a minimun of 2 persons and is limited to a small group of 4. It will be held in the countryside of East Sussex, 30 minutes drive from London Gatwick airport.
This workshop is a lecture and design work together with making a model of your design out of straw/clay and other natural materials and having some hands on with earthbag filling and mixing cob.
What You Will Learn
The workshop introduces areas of planning your house, from orientation of your building on site, through starting the process of design, to an awareness of what is involved in the building process so you can begin to plan your home.
Throughout the weekend, the workshop is 50% lecture and design and discussion, and 50% hands-on practical work… building a model of your design.
The topic areas covered are:
An overview of how to go about locating and approaching design of your house.
Technologies choices for the house structure such as:
- Foundation types
- Roof structures: types of roofs.
- Walls: an overview of natural building wall technologies: straw bale, cordwood, earthbag, cob, rammed earth, adobe.
Book Your Place
The price of the two day workshop is £195 per person.
Numbers on the workshop will be limited to 4 to ensure a good learning experience.
Children from the age of 8 are welcome to accompany their parent(s) and may participate in parts of the workshop as they wish. No charges are made for children under the age of 12 years.
To book your place:
email earthhands@gmail.com or
call Paulina on (+44) 7787918184.
About your Workshop Leader
The workshop will be lead by Earth, Hands and Houses founder Paulina Wojciechowska, a qualified architect who has over 19 years of experience building with straw bales and earthbags in communities all around the world.
Paulina worked alongside Nader Khalili at Cal-Earth in 1996 and is the author of “Building with Earth”, one of the leading earthbag construction books. She also worked with leading straw bale and clay plaster veterans Bill and Athena Steen in 1997-8 and has been involved in running straw bale and earthbag workshops and designing and building straw bale structures since then. Click here to hear Paulina talk about her experiences.
Food, Location, Accommodation
Vegetarian food will be available at an additional cost, payable upon arrival. The food will comprise a self service breakfast, full cooked lunchtime meal, and a light supper, e.g soup…
The workshop will be held in a house in the village of Forest Row, which is a 30 minute drive south of London Gatwick airport. You may camp at a farm field 3 miles away for free (with no fascilities), or stay in the house on a matress on the floor for £15/night possibly in a shared room, or find your own accomodation in or around the village.
Click here for more details, maps, travel information and other accommodation available.
Workshop Timing
The workshop will run the following times:
Day 1: from 9:00 to 18:00. Campfire in the evening, weather permitting. You are welcome to arrive on the afternoon of the day before to set up camp and settle in before the workshop begins.
Days 2: from 09:00 to 16:00.
Learn more…
Hear Paulina talk about her experience and vision for Earth, Hands and Houses:
Watch people’s experience of an Earth, Hands and Houses straw bale and clay plastering workshop: