A Report on the first annual Build Here Now! Natural Building and Permaculture Convergence held June 6-12, 1999, at the Lama Foundation near Taos, New Mexico

"If my life was a marathon, the Lama Convergence is that point when I'm cramping and about to faint and an angel appears with Gatorade nursing vigor back into my bones and then telling me that there is no finish line."
          - Nik Bertulis, participant
 
 
 "I have always learned best through hands-on learning, so I was grateful when I discovered that the Build Here Now Convergence was mostly hands-on, experiential learning. Putting my hands into the materials, slapping plaster made of straw and mud onto walls built of straw and wood taught me far more than I could have ever learned from a book on natural building. It is the smell, the texture, the heat and the cold of sun and water that made me fall in love with the act of natural building.

I will never forget standing in the cob pit with seven other barefoot builders; holding onto one another for support; our feet doing the work of mixing the sand, straw, water and soil together; singing, laughing, work merging with play. At the end of the day we went to dinner late soaked to the knee in cob and smiling. This is the essence of what it means to 'build here now' - when work and play are the same thing."
          - Ellery Kimball, participant
 
 
 "It is difficult to summarize the rich tapestry of events that I experienced during the building and permaculture convergence at the Lama Foundation. On the one hand, the warp of this tapestry was over 40 workshops and projects happening simultaneously. The weft, however, the contrasting threads holding the fabric together, was the special nature of the site and the energy of this spiritual community, of which I had no knowledge before we arrived on Saturday night.

I came exclusively for practical, hands-on building experience. I had been traveling from place to place for several months, to accumulate enough knowledge to start my own building projects, and I was alone most of the time. What I found at Lama that was more important than learning how to make mortise and tenon joints or straw-clay infill walls, I learned how to connect with incredible people in a way that has taught my spirit to open to the world of possibilities that only a real collaborative community can provide."
          - Jacques Ableman, participant
 
 
 "The recent Build Here Now convergence of natural builders and permaculture enthusiasts was an overwhelming success. The speakers, attendees and residents of the Lama Foundation near Taos spent seven lovely days in an atmosphere of mutual learning. We shared insights and experiences in a variety of contexts, including a wide array of permaculture seminars and the construction of a timber framed, straw-bale building and a solar composting toilet. The presenters were of such high quality that choosing between the concurrent workshops was difficult.

Delicious and varied vegetarian meals offered a leisurely opportunity to meet a vast diversity of interesting and learned folks. The evenings were filled with slide presentations, great music, and dancing in the Dome. Black Range Films will be producing a documentary video on this extraordinary event. Probably the most unexpected aspect of the Convergence was the deep caring people displayed toward each other and the profoundly spiritual context that evolved throughout the week. Although this unique experience will never be replicated, I believe it is the first of a new type of convergence where the gifts of permaculture, natural building, and the sacred interactions of human beings with the planet Earth will be shared and celebrated."
          - Chris Meuli, PDI Board
 
 


Presentations and Workshops Offered at "Build Here Now! 1999"

 ·  Archetype Design: Spirit and Sustainability with Vishu Magee. Archetype design is an experiential method of accessing the spiritual and creative underpinnings of sustainable building and life-style.

 ·  Biological Waste Treatment Systems with Tom Watson. An in depth look at the treatment of grey and black water waste through a Watson Wick, underground digestion and pumice filtration system.

 ·  Bringing Natural Building Into the Mainstream with Arnold Levine. How do we make the leap from individual housing to large scale housing/schools/shops etc.? This discussion group will try to determine how to bring green building into the mainstream with acceptance from conventional builders, construction loan lenders, code makers and local authorities.

 ·  Building With Spirit with Ron Sutcliffe. An exploration of ways to connect location, materials, builders, and residents together in reverence to our mother and all her beings.

 ·  Cistern Building with Bert Lopez. How to build low cost cisterns using basic materials such as wire fencing, old carpet, and plastic sheeting. The focus of our discussion are cisterns as a basis for household water catchment systems.

 ·  Cob Construction with Sun Ray Kelley. A hands-on workshop constructing a cob interior wall of the solar residence. With the assistance of Cedar Rose Guelberth.

 ·  Creating Living Soil with Toby Hemenway. A workshop about the basics of soil ecology: who lives in your soil and what they do. An exploration of soil structure, humus and fertility, mulches and cover crops, how to solve soil problems, and how to characterize your soil. Several techniques for building rich, fertile, soil.

 ·  Cropmasters and Food Forests with Bill Roley. Agroforestry systems for an urban area can be articulated by mining the underutilized resources of waste, water, and other resources. Case study examples document the evolution of the landscape and industrial ecology options in our cities.

 ·  Earthen Plasters on Strawbale with Cedar Rose. A hands-on three day workshop exploring how to plaster the strawbale walls at the Solar Residence. Assisted by Keely Meagan, founder of Artisan Earth Roving Natural Plaster Crew.

 ·  Eco-village Design with Peter Bane and Albert Bates. An introduction to the four streams of ecovillage development: belief, resources, culture and technology, some suggestions about their integration and staging, and an exercise in community planning, accompanied by slides and visual presentation.

 ·  Earth Bag Construction with Jann Rucquoi. An introduction to the concept through my experience as an apprentice at Cal-Earth with Nader Khalili. An exploration of soil testing and then the hands on application of the earth bag building method with mud plastering.

 ·  Earth Plasters, Clay Slips and Aliz with Carole Crews. At the Wren Econest, a hands-on week-long workshop mixing mud plaster for interiors and exteriors, sculpting with mud plaster on the exterior of the Econest, mixing and applying mica-kaolin slips and alises, and exploring their decorative qualities.

 ·  Easy and Efficient Masonry Stoves with Alan Reeves. A three-day workshop, designing and building a Russian stove at the new Solar Residence.

 ·  Earthseeds and Drylands Revegetation Strategies with Winnie Devlin and Memphis Barbree. A hands-on workshop to make Earthseeds, pelletized mixes of native flowers and grasses. A discussion of various approaches to restoring damaged ecologies in the high desert: sheet mulching and revegetation work with native plants.

 ·  The Farm: A Thirty-Year History with Albert Bates. An evening slide presentation reviewing the history and social activism of this intentional community.

 ·  Fire Ecology, Erosion Control, and Forest Restoration with Richard Zook. An overview of the land restoration processes underway at Lama, general ideas and principles behind Lama's restoration approach, technologies and techniques used such as contour and check dams, seeding and tree planting, etc., basic fire ecology, and some philosophical questions arising from this work.

 ·  The Healthy Home, a slide presentation with Cedar Rose Guelberth. Natural earthen plasters, strawbale construction, indoor air quality, environmental and healthier building materials, and wholistic home design.

 ·  High Desert Gardening with Cathy Hope. Strategies for organic gardening in high altitude, dry, short season conditions. Also season extensions techniques.

 ·  The International Permaculture Movement with Scott Pittman.A brief report on the need for permaculture teachers internationally and the loss of cultural ways of living bioregionally.

 ·  Introduction to Permaculture with Jonathan Scharfman. Permaculture can be defined simply as "practical ecology." This workshop explores the foundational principles of Permaculture as the basis of the ecological design process. The ten-year-old permaculture demonstration site at Lama provides opportunities for participants to connect design principles with their application and implementation.

 ·  Introduction to Plant Guild with Toby Hemenway. Guilds, or constructed plant (and animal) communities, are one of permaculture's most useful yet elusive concepts. This workshop starts with a basic look at what guilds are, examines a guild or two in detail, then moves on to several techniques for guild design. We also look at guilds as self-organizing adaptive systems, as they relate to complexity and chaos theory.

 ·  The Lama Site Plan:A Permaculture Case Study with Ben Haggard. A discussion of Lama's site plan using the history of permaculture planning for the Lama Foundation over the last ten years as background. Includes some lecture as well as opportunities for discussion and experiential learning.

 ·  Living with Composting Toilets with Ron Sutcliffe. This informational and practical workshop presents an overview of all current literature, designs, and research associated with composting toilets. Participants also receive information on health issues and practical day-to-day living with composting toilet concerns.

 ·  Local Currency Systems with Dan Dorsey. This workshop shows you how to set up a local currency system to supplement federal dollars. We cover how to keep track of trading units, publicity and outreach, community empowerment, and the many advantages of a local currency system. Sample materials from Tucson's own system available.

 ·  Micro Housing/Independent Natural Housing with Larry Sanders and Tom Watson. This workshop concerns how to use natural, recycled, or available materials to construct an independent structure/environment.

 ·  Mushroom Cultivation with Tammy Davis. The basics of inoculation and creating favorable microclimates for mushroom propagation in the high desert. Incorporating mushrooms into plant guild designs.

 ·  Organic Architecture with Sun Ray Kelley. An evening retrospective slide presentation looking at the evolution of his work as a natural builder over the last twenty years.

 ·  Path Making with Christian Meuli. The planning, design, and implementation of paths which become the beneficial connectors between the structural elements in the landscape.

 ·  Permaculture Credit Union with Scott Pittman. A discussion during the short afternoon session of the history of credit unions and why the permaculture community is banding together to form a credit union.

 ·  Permaculture Networking with John Irwin. A discussion about the American PC Directory, the directory corresponding website, PDI, The Permaculture Activist and other publications/websites. Focusing on how to improve networking, including an interactive directory on-line.

 ·  Permaculture Principles and Practices with Ben Haggard. The group will explore ways that systemic thinking can be applied to design. The workshop will focus on the underlying structure of permaculture rather than on specific techniques. Group discussion format.

 ·  Plants of Lama with Susan Garrett. Techniques for improving observational skills, our ability to connect with nature and our ability to communicate with plants. Herb walk identifying medicinal, edible, dye, and otherwise permaculturally useful plants at Lama.

 ·  Prescriptions for a Healthy Home: Tour of the Eco-Nest with Paula Baker-Laporte. A slide presentation explaining the design concepts and methods of Econest building from the perspective of creating health enhancing and ecologically sustainable shelter. This is an introduction to the hands-on straw-clay workshop with Robert Laporte.

 ·  Project Design: The Solar Residence with Janice Vascott. A week-long, intensive experience in building all aspects of the Solar Residence, including timber frame, strawbale, straw clay, adobe, and cob construction.

 ·  Renewable Energy: Photovoltaics with Liam Rutan. A walk-through look at the photovoltaic systems at Lama Foundation: the 12-volt DC system on the Wren Econest, the booster pump system on the gravity-fed shower, rough wiring on the new solar residence.

 ·  Solar Energy is a Natural with Karlis Viceps. Solar building design principles taught in an interactive format for a clear understanding of how to optimize winter heating and summer cooling, how to best use insulation, mass, and glass. Participants analyze the solar gain and heat loss of the new Lama building to determine their own solar savings.

 ·  Stacking Functions with Insects: From Site Assessment to Snacks with Brad Lancaster and Marci Tarre. A discussion of the multiple functions of insects, including their role as nutritious food, pollinators, pest control, medicine, fabric dye and soil improvers. An emphasis on native insects, particularly those of the Sonoran bioregion. Hands on activities include rating insect foods and building native bee boxes.

 ·  A Strawbale School in China with Frank Meyer. An evening slide presentation of Frank Meyer's recent trip to China to help build the first known strawbale structure in existence there.

 ·  Strawbale Wall Raising with Frank Meyer. Constructing the walls of the solar residence: stacking and tying bales, external pinning with bamboo, and the detailing of windows and doors.

 ·  Straw Clay Construction with Robert Laporte. Tools and materials, making clay slips; mixing, loading, tamping straw clay; formwork. Organization for doing less and accomplishing more. Lounging.

 ·  Sun, Earth, Place, and Dwelling with Ron Sutcliffe. This workshop brings together pieces of many natural building/earth sensitive ideas including permaculture patterning, geomancy, Feng Shui, and southwest archaeoastronomy. This practical presentation gives simple tools so participants are able to incorporate the sun, place, and Earth into their dwelling designs.

 ·  Sustainable Timber Harvesting Techniques with John Murray. An exploration of the versatility of the chainsaw as a practical and artistic tool; how he built the Maqbara hermitage; how to fell standing trees; freehand milling, joinery techniques and finish work.

 ·  Timber Frame Construction at the Solar Residence with Sun Ray Kelley. How to construct a rectangular, load-bearing timber Frame structure for the solar residence while preserving the raw, organic beauty - the unique, curvaceous forms intrinsic to the dead standing trees at Lama.

 ·  Tools and Toolmaking with Joel Glanzberg. Overview of hand tools, construction, and use. Types of steel and basic blacksmithing techniques. Hardening and tempering steel. Construction of damper and flu for the Russian stove at the solar residence.

 ·  Watershed Management with Jonathan Scharfman. The systemic health of a watershed is critical to the utilization of the high desert's most precious natural resource - rainwater. This workshop will focus on watershed assessment and design strategies for both micro and macro-scale catchment areas.

 ·  Y2K Planning with Albert Bates. Thinking about how to prepare: fundamentals of survival; categories of preparations; resources.



This article appeared in the Spring 1999 issue of Branching Out, the Permaculture Drylands Journal.