Natural Building Workshops in southern ITALY, 2-5 weeks, April 26th - May 30th

workshop students building a cob cottage in Portugal

In this Natural Building Workshop we are building an earthship inspired classroom for Christoph & Mario’s permaculture project in southern Italy.
There are no skill requirements. You will learn everything you need to build a house from foundation to roof.

From April 26th to May 30th we will start another round of Natural Building Workshops near Badolato in southern Italy.
These workshops will provide you plenty of opportunity to get hands-on experience in Natural Building, all the skills and especially the confidence you need to build a little cabin for yourself.
The highlights of these workshops are a natural rock stemwall & foundation, a natural round pole timber frame and roof, light-straw-clay, straw bale as well as cob walls, earthen floors,
earthen plasters, a rainwater harvesting roof and even cob sculpting, Tadelakt and an integrated greenhouse to make this building similar to an earthship.



Extras
Because this is an area with possibility of light earthquakes, we will talk about earthquake protection and apply what we learned on the building.

We will build a green house extension to make this building similar to an earthship, and passively heated even in winter. The green house will include grey-water planters that are fed from the sink and showers.


cozy earthship interior

Natural Builder Certification
You will receive a Natural Builder Certificate, all the teaching materials by email and the Sustainability Skills – Natural Builder’s Handbook, which is a summary of the workshop building steps, upon graduation.

Workshop Requirements
There are no skill requirements for these Natural Building Workshops! That said, it certainly won’t hurt if you know some things and put it to good use or share it with others. Nobody is perfect and we are always curious to learn other ways of doing things.

Workshop schedule

Sun Apr 25, 4 pm: Opening Circle / Welcome Dinner / Introduction

1st week: Foundation / Plumbing / 1st Floor

2nd week: Round pole timber Frame / Door and Window Frames

3rd week: Walls / Electrical / Windows

4th week: Walls / 1st Plaster / 2nd Plaster / 2nd Floor

5th week: Roof / Green house / Tadelakt

Sat May 30, 10 am: Closing Circle

There is often someone who leads yoga or some other movement practice in the morning and/or the afternoon. We like to have one evening a week to show slides, videos or have workshop related debates. The rest of the time you can spend on your own, join a jam session around the fire or contribute something to share with the group.


voluntary morning yoga session

Workshop Hosts: Mario & Christoph


Mario and Christoph on a hike at a permaculture workshop

Christoph and Mario would like us to come up with a smart design. Although the primary purpose of the project will be to serve as a classroom where lectures or workshops can take place, it should also be usable to accommodate guests and workshop students.


Badolato Borgo and Badolato Marina in the background, the location for this advanced natural building workshop
Read more about Christoph & Mario, their permaculture project and the workshop location: Badolato.

Workshop Instructor


Robert ‘Cob-Rob’ Brendler

Robert Brendler has been doing construction work since the age of 12 when he accompanied his grandpa on construction sites during his summer vacation. He’s a Jack of all trades, experienced in Masonry, Carpentry, Plumbing, Electrical Wiring, Home Automation, Cob Building & Sculpting, Green-Roofs, Non Violent Communication, Teaching and Team-Building and is bringing it all together to give you a complete experience from foundation to roof. Robert loves the Natural Building Community and bringing together the kind of people that are interested in it. He loves teaching and the look on faces when people succeed in doing things they never imagined they could do.

Registration & Payment

Registration and further information at https://sustainability-skills.org/natural-building-workshop

The fees for the Natural Building Workshops (including Tuition, Camping and Meals) are:

with EARLY BIRD discount until March 15:

BASIC
2 week course from May 11th - 23rd
900€ 650€
includes

Cob walls

Strawbale walls

Light-Straw-Clay walls

Rammed Earth walls

Electrical conduits / outlets

Earthen floors

Earthen plasters

Cob sculpting & inserts

Niches / Shelves / Arches

Lime Plaster

INTERMEDIATE
3 week course from May 4th - 23rd
1250€ 850€
includes

All BASIC content

Round Pole Timber Framing

Wooden Frame & Roof

Wood connections

Wood protection

Power Tool Instruction

Hand Tool Instruction

Live Edge Shelves

Window & Door Frames

ADVANCED
4 week course from April 27th - May 23rd
1600€ 1100€
includes

All INTERMEDIATE content

Ground assessment

Foundation

Drainage

Natural Rock Stemwall

Plumbing

Floor Insulation

Earthen subfloor

MASTER
5 week course from April 27th - May 31st
1900€ 1350€
includes

All ADVANCED content

Rainwater harvesting

Reciprocal, Shed or Saddle roof

Metal or Green roof

Passive solar heating

Greenhouse extension

Water recycling

Grey-water planters

Natural finishes and paints

Tadelakt

Registration is limited to 15 students. Registration deadline: April 11.

We always offer 4 work trade discounts, 2 in the kitchen making breakfast in the morning and 2 onsite in the morning before breakfast or in the afternoon between class and dinner. An ideal learning opportunity to get a glimpse on every detail of the build. Each work trade is 50€ off the tuition fees per week for one hour of help a day. To apply for these work trade positions please contact robert.brendler@gmail.com.

MUDDY BUDDY DEAL: Register friends later, get the same discount. When the discount offer is ending soon, but your best friend isn’t sure yet. No problem, register now and secure the discount for the both of you.

Registration and further information at https://sustainability-skills.org/natural-building-workshop

WE LOOK FORWARD TO MEETING YOU!!!


Aliona and Robert in Chile 2019 creating a new style of cob dancing!

Hi Robert,
I saw your post about natural building. It was a while back but I still wanted to reach out. My husband and I just moved to Italy and want to buy land and do natural building on it.
We need help with the build codes around the area to be sure we are buying the right thing. Do you know much about the Modena area or have contacts that might know? Any lead helps. Also, are you still teaching natural building? We are trying to find our community and network of people and somebody who would want to help us host a natural building workshop.
Thanks for your time,
Denise