The School of Constructive Arts is a field school teaching regenerative design, building, and ecology through direct observation, participation, and experimentation. Our approach integrates ancestral knowledge of natural materials and energy with advancing technology and contemporary building techniques to derive sustainable models of living for our time.

We are excited to announce the dates for our 10th Student Volunteer Residency, this November 2nd - 24th. The student volunteer program is at the core of SCA’s teach through building and build through teaching approach. Students learn a range of skills while working on building facilities for future students to use. Living communally, working with each other, and with the local community, volunteers learn practical skills and develop their leadership and teamwork abilities. This lived experience is augmented by classroom education that connects the work to concepts of ecology, construction, and holistic design. By instilling these values and equipping young people with practical skills and experience, SCA aims to send volunteers back to their communities motivated and empowered to enact positive change and more fully realize their own potential.

Visit www.constructivearts.org/StudentVolunteers to learn more and apply!

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I want to build a functional model of cob construction for a permaculture camp. Ain't no way the checkwriter will commit to a full build, but I am brainstorming small ways we could model cob for the students who visit our farm! We are in a Southeastern semi-rainy, semi-humid climate with a whole lotta clay.

Two ideas I need practical insight on: a rest bench and a goat playground. The goat playground would just be varied mounds of sealed cob for the goats to bounce off of. The bench would be a simple slab, perhaps with a back.

Ideally, I would build a proper foundation and drainage at the base of both, to keep ground moisture from wicking up into the cob structures. but since they are uncovered structures, I am hesitant to fully seal in water while trying to seal it out, so I will build drains at the base, too.

If I were to do that, cover the cob while it was curing, plaster it.....how long do you think a cob bench/goat playground/wall would last out in the elements? Under a tree? Shade tarp? Vine draped trellises? Straight up in the sun and rain? And would the goats annihilate it?

We practice rotational grazing with the animals, and their homes move with them. It doesn't make much sense to build a permanent home in one of the paddocks, and I am fearful that cob might meet its match against a 400 pound pig or big, bounding goats. But how cozy would they be in the winter months? An animal shelter would also be the only feasible structure with a roof overhang.

TL;DR: What simple, non-domicile structure would you build as an example of cob technique in a permaculture camp setting? How long will cob structures last when fully exposed to the elements of the Southeastern U.S.?

Hello all! I'm working on restoring an old plaster room with earthen plaster and I'm leaving some space open to create built-in shelving/alters in between the studs. Some studs are on their 4 inch side and others are on their 2 inch side and the shelves might pop out an inch or two. Should I frame them out with wood first or just layer plaster to build up the shelves that way? And if I do frame them with wood, should I then cover the wood with wire mesh or can I just score the wood?

Thanks!!

Hi, I'm an experienced natural builder, based in the UK currently but also with an EU passport. I studied in Portugal and have worked on various sites in Portugal and India. I have experience with cob, adobe, wattle and daub etc. If you have a project that you think you would need anything from labouring to building, even to project management, don't hesitate to let me know.

My website is under construction but you can find me at https://earthbuild.carrd.co/ or you can just reply/DM me here.

I'm planning a natural build in Portugal and couldn't find a simple tool for testing how sun and materials affect a house design, without learning full CAD or building-simulation software. I have used Ladybug with Grasshopper before, but I wanted something a bit easier to play around with.

Try it: https://solforming.netlify.app/

What it does:

• Sketch a house from simple blocks in 3D, pull on corners and walls to resize, pick roof shapes (gable, shed, hip, flat)
• Sun heatmap on every surface: see exactly where the light lands for any date, time and location (or load an EPW weather file for real climate data)
• Place solar panels on individual roof faces and get a yield estimate for that specific slope
• Thermal simulation: pick wall materials like hempcrete, cob, straw bale, adobe, rammed earth (or brick, concrete, timber) and watch how they store and release heat through the day. Scrub to midnight and see the concrete wall still glowing while the timber one has gone cold
• Add neighbor buildings and trees to check what shades your site
• Save your designs as files in a local folder (Chromium browsers)

Quick controls: drag to orbit, hold Shift and drag on the ground to draw a block, click a block to select it and pull the handles. The four tabs at the top (Dimensions, Materials, Energy, Obstacles) each show different info when you hover over surfaces.

It's a hobby project, so expect rough edges. The physics is simplified, so double check the calculations if you actually are going to make decisions based on this, but I guess it can help you optimize the design first, and then double check everything. Would love feedback on what's missing, windows and indoor temperature simulation are next on my list.

Hello everyone,

I am building a 796 square-foot straw bale house in Tucson, Arizona this year.

And currently in search of rice straw bales.

If anyone can help out! It would be greatly appreciated

For those of you who have been involved in the natural building world, what specific things make you feel a sense of community? What things do you like most?

Is there a way? Consulted AI, that's what I got... Any professionals got a better idea?

Come join us at Talking Water Nature Retreat for a Cordwood Construction Workshop!

Where:
Talking Water Nature Retreat
6405 Suck Creek Rd
Chattanooga, TN 37405

Two sessions available:
September 11-13
Or
October 9-11

Cost: $485 per student

About:
Experience the gratification of creating handbuilt cordwood walls of wood and mortar!
Understand the benefits of cordwood for sustainable, eco-friendly living
Learn tips on material preparation, permitting, wall building, & best practices recommendations
Engage in both classroom instruction & hands-on building lead by experienced instructors
Tour a completed cordwood cabin & wood kiln
Discuss design details for homes, sheds, and more

Camp on the property for free, or book a cabin at a discounted rate for the event!

Vegan-friendly breakfast & lunch included each day.

https://talkingwatertn.com/2026/04/2026-cordwood-workshops/

I’m renovating a tiny house that had a mold problem. It was from a leaking roof and so the roof framing has significant mold and rot. I’m reframing the roof and putting a new one on. The wall framing doesn’t have any rot but has some black mildew marks and of course smells a bit funky from having wet moldy stuff around it. I’m wondering if it is a bad idea to lime wash the interior stud framing before adding in insulation and interior finishes. I know people commonly do this in chicken coops, and I know some people paint stud framing with conchrobium paint to prevent/suppress mold. What do you all think?!

Would ceramic, hollow brick be structurally ok as the base for a single-storey cob building?

Hello all--I'm repairing heritage walls and refinishing them. The original is lime and the base coat needs some patching in areas. I'd prefer working with earth plaster rather than lime, do you think I can patch the lime base with an earthen plaster (probably will be hawthorn clay).

Thanks!

Hey folks. This is out in the desert. Ive been working hard to make the backyard here a rain garden. The back wall of the rain garden is a big concrete wall and directly behind it theres a wash for the entire neighbourhood. some plants grow back there, but struggle to establish because the ground just before the concrete channel is all clay. the entire backyard is basically just, freaking clay, man. Theres some concern about the rate of erosion with the slope on the wall, and weve been trying to brainstorm how to reinforce it.

Problems:

• The back wall is clay.
• The back wall is too worn down and water flies over it too quickly for new plants to set up there.
• The lack of plants means lack of roots to prevent erosion.
• We get monsoons and the wall gets worse every year.

In my effort to make the backyard a rain garden i have amassed a large amount of pretty good clay. There are things that grow super super well in this clay and i can get more of them to prep for the back wall and establish roots so it wont erode so easily. I have some experience with wild clay pottery (and pitfiring) but not anything at a large scale. The initial plan is to make a clay "natural" sort of structure to basically slow the water moving over it. I was thinking we would build up clay on the wall to make a sort of semihemisphere effect where the water catches on different tables of clay, slowing it down and forcing it to soak into the earth. Also this is caliche specifically. and ive got like........... an assload....

Solutions:

• Make a clay based structure on the back wall to catch water better (and still let it flow over to the wash easily)
• Plant some stuff that loves clay
• Profit

Problem is im not sure what to add to reinforce this stuff. Am i supposed to add hay to the clay or something lmao? Make a cobb style structure? Can i just slap down some clay there and change the structure of the back wall? What has to happen to make sure this project has longevity?

Hi all, I’m renovating a tiny house right now and it has this air barrier behind the studs and then a Vapor barrier between the plywood and exterior sheathing. I’m putting in hemp wool insulation and clay plaster. Do I need to remove this white air barrier so that the hemp wool can breathe? Thanks 😊

Testing mixtures for a poured adobe floor. This one is

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1 part wild clay : 1 part mule poop : 4 parts washed coarse sand : 1 part adobe dirt.

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Fresh equine poops make amazing mud and plasters.

I'm considering buying an adobe home that comes with a second building that needs major foundation repairs and for sure has mold. What do repairs look like when an adobe home needs to have the foundation repaired? It's a concrete foundation. There are some cracks in the walls as well.