posted 11 years ago
Hello Brian,
In a few word....NO YOU DON'T...however....
Sorry Ann, as a traditional and natural builder with 40 years of experience I have to counter some of your thinking. One, though most architects coming out of college today don't no the first thing about the actual "get your hands dirty" aspect of building, they do know how to design way better than most contractors (and most likely Brian at this point in his training) and without a doubt will keep a building from falling over (mostly.) Now very few of them know what Brian knows, and in a few years he will be way ahead of them in the realm of "natural building."
Brian, it is going to be a real challenge for a young fellow like yourself to compete in the open market with folks like me bidding against you (or those I and others have trained.) So, per Ann's suggestion, you do need about five to ten years of learning how to build. Even if you never touch any conventional building materials, you are never going to be able to "educate" a client or the market, if you do not have a solid background in all things architecture. You must understand good design (do you know what the golden section is, 3-4-5 and how it works with the golden section, applications of balance and proportioning, etc. etc.?), historical and contemporary building modalities, all the different codes (national and international, and have a solid handle on market price matrixes.
If I client in Oregon, Japan, Vermont, the U.K. asked me how much a stone wall cost per liner foot, what it cost to hand lay earth or lime plaster by square foot, or build a timber frame by square meter. I could most likely give them a price out of my head with about 85% accuracy (give or take.) If they asked something I didn't know, I could put my hands on it within probably minutes to seconds with the same degree of understanding.
I really do commend you for your goal, and really hope you join our ranks, but you have a great deal to learn...and there really isn't any cutting corners. So it is either back to college for 3 to 6 more years, into the school of hard knocks for 15 to 20 years, or finding a "traditional-natural" design build firm you can join. If you go on your own (the hard knock way)...well that can work to, but is neither efficient, or good for your clients. If you start slow, and just take small jobs (if you can survive on that) then in about 6 to 12 years you will get a good idea of what it takes to run a domestic design/build company working in the traditional-natural design formats.
I wish you all the luck!
Warm Regards,
j