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Natural Building Workshops
Do you dream of building your own eco-home someday?
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Are you excited about building with straw bales, earthen plaster, lime plaster, and other natural materials?
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Are you ready to sling mud with people who have built their own sustainable homes out of clay, sand, and straw?
Join us for our next natural building workshop!
Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is a natural builder’s paradise! Experienced builders Mark Mazzioti and Kyle Yoder, two of Dancing Rabbit’s leading natural building artists, will lead these hands-on workshops focusing on techniques for creatively building with a wide variety of natural materials.
During the workshops you’ll stack straw bale walls, mold earthen cob by hand, and apply natural plasters. You’ll get direct experience understanding how fibers, binders, and aggregate work together in a wide variety of diverse applications. In addition to technical skills, you’ll also creatively stretch your artistic side by playing with patterns and designs with organic shapes, colored bottles, and mosaic tiles. You’ll take away natural building knowledge and experience that can be applied anywhere, including an existing home.
We are also offering a Cob Oven workshop this year! If you’d like to join us to learn to utilize all the natural building techniques and skills while we make a cob oven, register below!
All this amidst one of the largest assemblages of natural buildings in North America. You’ll take a tour of homes at Dancing Rabbit– home to some 40-odd structures that each demonstrate a unique piece of natural or green construction.
You’ll gain insight into your projects back at home, better understand how foundation, walls, and roof come together as part of a larger whole, and learn how to select materials appropriate for different parts of construction. And you’ll do it all while helping to create artful, affordable, and environmentally-sustainable spaces at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, a place committed to learning, living, and sharing ways to live more lightly on the earth!
These one-of-a-kind workshops will provide you with:
- new insights into human shelter and a deep understanding of the important role natural building can play in these unpredictable climatic times
- an understanding of how a building’s foundation, frame, roof, and walls fit together in design and construction
- sensory experiences of natural material mixes and how to adapt them to your needs
- practice with a variety of building tools
- tips on what requires detailed attention, and what can be “quick and dirty,” so you can build both artfully and efficiently
- exercise, laughter, and a dozen new friends!
Most of the workshop will be experiential and hands-on, working with a variety of natural building techniques:
- straw bales
- structural cob (clay, sand, straw)
- earthen plasters
- stone and recycled concrete
- various roofing techniques
- plus exposure to many others
If you want to have fun while getting messy, making new friends, and learning how to create sustainable, non-industrial, low-impact buildings, we invite you to register now, since this workshop is likely to sell out quickly. You’ll come away knowing how you can contribute to a healthier world with your new natural building skills.
Join us for a live Ask a Natural Builder Anything event
Do you have burning questions about:
- Straw bale buildings
- Cob construction
- Wattle and daub
- Rubble Trench, Urbanite, Gravel Bags, and Frost Protected Foundations
- Earthen plaster
- Lime plaster
- Tile/stained glass mosaics
- Tools you need for natural building
- … or other techniques!
2022 Natural Building Workshops:
Natural Building 1: June 2-5
Natural Building 2: September 15-18
Cob Oven Workshop: July 15-17
Discover What People Have to Say About Their Experience
Located in Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage
Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, nestled in the rolling hills of Northeast Missouri, is one of the most well-known and successful ecovillages in the country, and one of the few in the Midwest. Founded in 1997, DR is home to many excellent examples of sustainable and eco-living. Plus the stars at night are amazing. You can check out the rest of our website to learn more about our ecovillage.
Mark Mazziotti discovered natural building in 2003 at a gathering in New Mexico. Ever since then he’s had his hands (and feet) in the mix of techniques that make up this labor of love. He learned straw bale building from Steve Kemble, one of the founders of the movement, apprenticed with Michael Smith, co-author of The Hand-Sculpted House, and taught earthbag building in South Africa with Joseph Kennedy, cofounder of Builders Without Borders. Mark holds a degree in fine arts from University of Pittsburgh and a masters in communications design from Pratt Institute. Before turning towards natural building he worked for many years as an art director at Public Media Center in San Francisco. Mark designed and built his own straw bale house at Red Earth Farms in Missouri where he currently resides. Most recently, he has been working with a group of Maskoke original people who have reclaimed their ancestral land in Alabama.
The course fee includes 3 meals a day, packed with as much nourishing, local food as possible. We can work with a range of dietary needs – let us know your particulars when you fill out the registration form. Please note that we do our best to accommodate different dietary needs but cannot guarantee that we will be able to.
Natural Building 1: June 2-5, 2022
Natural Building 2: September 15-18, 2022
Cob Oven Workshop: July 15-17, 2022
Arrive Thursday afternoon between 1:30-4pm, depart Sunday afternoon.
Meals provided from Thursday dinner through Sunday lunch.
The course fee includes camping accommodations in Dancing Rabbit’s wooded campground. Platforms for tents are provided, along with a composting toilet and access to showers in the Dancing Rabbit Community Building.
Indoor accommodations are available to rent during the course for an additional fee. We have several options: rooms in cabins, private homes, and the bed & breakfast. Email us after you register to see what’s still available.
Pricing
- Natural Building Workshop: 1 Adult: $497
- Cob Oven Workshop: 1 Adult: $375
The all-inclusive fee covers: instruction, materials, meals, camping platform (bring your own gear), showers, bathrooms, WiFi, and community building access. Indoor accommodations are available at an extra cost.