MEM June power down/cob workshop article
Sarah Moore
The Earth Provides; Learn to Build with Clay, Sand and Straw;
Many of us already agree that we need to conserve our dwindling
nonrenewable resources. We are looking at our personal lives, as well
as asking our communities and government to do more. Because building
and construction worldwide consume 3 billion tons of raw materials each
year we have to look at construction as one of the aspects our culture
must change to become sustainable. Changing the way we build can help
reduce the environmental impacts associated with the extraction,
transport, processing, and disposal of non renewable materials, As well
as the over use on renewable.
Cement production is a very energy-intensive process. Until now we
have considered it affordable but, as energy prices rise and as we take
in the price of the environmental degradation caused by this process
into account, we start to see it is actually very expensive. Looking
for alternatives becomes natural or rather natural materials look like a
real alternative.
Even though most of us are not planning on building a home any
time soon the knowledge of how to work with natural materials is an
important part of our heritage. Earth building materials, clay and
sand are cheap, plentiful and almost everywhere, which is why they were
the building materials for many of our ancestors. Bringing earth
materials back as a viable building option will serve us well as they
have many advantages besides being plentiful. Building with earth
materials is quite and easy to learn, most of it is safe and nontoxic
and even child friendly. It can be used where you want "thermal mass."
Thermal mass is the quality of a building material that heats up and
cools down slowly, so it and can be used to keep buildings cool in the
summer and store heat in the winter. Cob is a way of building using
clay, sand and straw. When a Cob or other earth buildings are neglected
they return to the earth, there are no toxic materials left.
Building with earth is energy intensive in one area; human energy.
It takes knowledge and time. Keeping with the idea of Power Down Week
of community projects and learning labs we are going to have a natural
building learning lab at Concordia Gardens in which we will build a cob
oven. (Concordia Gardens is located at Concordia and Palmer. ) Last
year a wonderful team of Vala Mohr, Stacy Kmetz and David Menees lead a
week of workshops that resulted in a cob oven at the Greenfolks Garden.
This year Erik Lindburg of Community Builders along with Transition
Milwaukee members Adrian Lee and Terry Kinnis will be heading up our
Natural building learning lab. Keep an eye out for the Power Down Week
Schedule at powerdownweek.com or posted on an actual wall near you!
Power Down Week is still unfolding; We are going to have our " Actual
Social Networking wall again, as well as peddle generated energy
projects, a speed " reskilling workshops"evening, edible walks and other
smaller workshops, home permaculture projects, and a silly skit and
powered down entertainment night, Kick off June 25th. Power Down Week
is a people powered event, If you have a workshop or an event you would
like to host contact us!
--
"The honorable choice I see is to power-down; stop taking airplane jaunts, repair old things, get out the clothespins, grow food, walk. And face the truth, that I am party to something so enormously destructive I can hardly know its edges. The conquering of any addiction begins with these words: I am the guilty party." Barbara Kingsolver
Sarah Moore
Sarah...@wi.rr.com
414 372-3824
Transition Milwaukee
transitionmilwaukee.org
Pink House Studio
pinkhousestudio.net