Upcoming Low-Carbon Building Solutions & Natural Building Workshops
Reviews of RDD’s Workshops:
“April’s Cob Oven workshop was such an inspiring event. I’ve never had so much fun, felt so much camaraderie, and gained such valuable skills in such a short period of time. She teaches the science and art of natural building in a profound way.” – Tom Knaust, Charleston, SC
” The Romney St. pizza oven project, in addition to the community garden and the overall community led effort, was another key grassroots transformation to a small forgotten corner of Charleston. In addition to learning life skills and taking part in a fun activity, it felt good to help out a neglected neighborhood with the people who live there. I felt it showed the big difference a small number of people can do with little resources and big hearts.” – Rivers Caraganis, Hillsboro, NC
“Beyond just reading or learning about natural building concepts in theory, we got a hands-on experience that has established a strong foundation for us to continue our natural building journey. April is a fun and informative teacher, and she makes a tricky subject easy to learn and practice.” – Lindsay Street, Berkeley County
Previous Workshops:
Maymester: Natural Building & Low Carbon Design & Methods + Cob Oven Build at Fresh Future Farm with American College of Building Arts
This three day introductory course focuses on the world’s oldest and most widely used building material: MUD! This course covered the history of mud as a building material, soil analysis & identification, building science, multiple ‘alternative’ building methods, & how to apply these methods in a modern world, including navigating through permitting and codes. We covered other Low-Carbon Design practices and Passive-Solar & Cooling design strategies through the process of building a cob oven.
- Chicken Coop Natural Building Workshop: Light-Straw-Clay (Slip-Straw), Earthen Plasters, Cob, & Shipping Pallet Construction at Fresh Future Farm.
- Recycled shipping pallets
- Light-straw-clay/Slip straw
- Earthen plasters
- Cob embellishments
- Intro Into Cob & Natural Building: How to Build a Cob Oven Romney St. Urban Garden (RUG) ~ Downtown Charleston, SC!
- Building with cob and other earthen materials
- Intro into natural building methods
- Permitting
- Rammed Earth, Adobe, Cob and Natural Paints and Plasters at The Barclay School Classroom, Columbia College, Columbia, SC
- Rammed earth, stabilized
- Living Roof
- Adobe and Cob benches
- Earthen Floors
- Clay Paints and Plaster
- Intro Into Cob and Natural Building: How to Build a Cob Oven at Wadmalaw Island, SC
- Introduction to cob and other earthen materials
- Basics of cob oven construction
- Passive Solar Design and Natural Building Materials at the Firefly Gathering in Asheville, NC
- Designing with passive solar in mind
- natural building materials and methods
- Clay Plasters and Paints on a Cob Oven and Bench at Growing Sprit Kid’s Camp, John’s Island, SC
- Plastering with clay
- Clay paint, mosaics, and finishing decorations on cob
- Demonstrating cob oven uses