Written by Dr Demeter
Photography by Ness Vanderburgh Photography
A Natural Building workshop took place at Magical Farm 11th – 16th January, 2022. A beautiful group of people convened to co-create an office for Magical Farm, in partnership with Clare Aston’s Elemental Earth Building. The retreat was a ‘village’ coming together to learn new skills, share food and stories. We explored Cob building (building with clay and stay and sand) and clay-straw slip technique.
I would like to share three ways Natural Building nourishes everyday life & reflect on our Natural Building retreat at Magical Farm: Introducing a concept called C.O.B!
C: Convivial communities
Convivial communities refers to people creating something autonomously outside the dominant system in a joyous and interdependent way. Put simply acting differently to the ‘industrial model’ of being and doing.
Natural Building is an empowering approach for everyday life practice. Our dominant culture ‘sells’ building to us as a commodity which requires tradies to make it all happen for us.
However Natural Building is a creative and nourishing activity which is accessible to all - thanks to this retreat my two eldest children know how to build a shelter for themselves – they have learnt new skills that will be practical for their life. The youngest one was soaking it all up and watching everyone immerse themselves. They made beautiful friendships and had a glorious time.
Natural building is one significant way to claim back power in our everyday life. If people can build their own shelters and not have to rely on commodity building, we can begin to shift away from unmanageable mortgages. We can also put an end to drip feeding from large corporations who sell us back commodified versions of shelter.
Another important learning natural building can be done by anyone if they set their heart to it. Women are known to be avid Natural Builders. Clare Aston our teacher said that many villages and homes around the world are naturally built by women - it is their job and they are highly respected for this task. Personally, it is such a relief for me to have learnt this skill. I can contribute to building my own shelter, in a healthy, sustainable and convivial way! Woodstock comes to Magical Farm - watch this space!
Natural Building offers a model that allows for people-to-help-people. Sharing a village experience in a powerful Temporal Autonomous Zone (TAZ) for a short period of time and supporting each other to learn, create shelter and in a joyous and caring way. The community of people expressed how they will help each other on their respective future builds.
The village created during our retreat felt good – yoga in the mornings, childcare love and support, campfires in the evenings, sharing kitchen duties and making of meals, sharing stories whilst we stomped on cob and built walls together and teaching each other new skills.
We had a special visit from Herbalist Without Borders - Monica Francia to teach us about the power of herbal medicine - having autonomy over the way we look after our wellbeing - is another important aspect that we need to claim back in our everyday life!
Our convivial cobbing meant we were creating more than just walls – we were creating friendships and shared experiences and at the same time becoming a community of practice with an essential skill for sustaining life.
Nested idea 1: Our Community / Village
2. O: Oikos
Reimagining the concept of the home is a big task, but Oikos is a great start! The ‘eco’ of economy & ecology derives from oikos – meaning home – that which sustains life. The family property / the house are also original meanings of oikos. The meaning of economy therefore derives from basic elements of our everyday life and how we organise ourselves in this way (‘nomy ’ means management of). As we participate more in institutional life we become further distanced from our home and Oikos. Tangible ways to reconnect back to the original version of ‘economy’ is to understand what in our lives that we purchase as essential services and products. This pretty much covers a lot of aspects of life. Natural Building is a foot in the door to reconnect, as is growing ones own food, taking autonomy over ones health & body through plants, community support and village (the list can go on here!).
Gibson-Graham feminist economic theorists describe ‘community economies’ as new ways to engage in living and working - in diverse forms of exchange. To them ‘community’ refers to the active ongoing negotiation of interdependence with all life forms, human and non-human.
Economies are therefore not simply about monetary exchange – and never were! In a community economy there are diverse ways to create forms of exchange such as: coops, natural building in festival (like our retreat!), bartering, volunteering, gifts and many more. Economies need to be placed-based and self sustaining where we can see the flow of energy and connection to what is being traded, exchanged and created.
Natural building as a process plants the seed for us to reconceive the original meaning of the concept of Oikos – and in turn reimagine the way we are living now in place.
Nested idea 2: Our home.
3. B: Boogie & our Bodies
To conclude Natural Building is tactile, connected to nature (literally you dig a hole in your back garden, and use this clay - this is called vernacular building) and fun! It is an embodied experience involving our head, heart and hands & our body! Natural Building is an embodied practice, which is great for us humans as a whole. It’s a relaxing process to participate in Natural Building because of the process in which it unfolds.
There were a few moments throughout the retreat in the late afternoon usually – where we cracked open a cold drink – turned up the radio and boogied as we built. Cob making requires you to stomp on a mix of clay and sand to make it into the right composition (similar process to old ways of making wine!).
Nested idea 3: Our body.
Summary
In summary I am a big fan of C.O.B & natural building – it is a holistic way to claim back a seriously commodified aspect of our everyday life.
Thank you to everyone who took part in the retreat: Yehuda, Dee, Sarah, Kristine, Sean, Luke, Ness, Felix,Zach, Abe Raphie, Nico, Liz, Mon, Bridgette & Stu as participants and volunteers. A big thank you to Clare Aston for her superb and passionate teachings.
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Any questions or queries into our natural building workshops please email info@magicalfarm.org
Photography by Ness Vanderburgh Photography
