Natural Building Network Cob Building Straw Bale Earthbag Cordwood Workshops Earthen Plasters Lime Hemp Adobe Bamboo Natural Insulation Earthen Floors Compressed Earth Light-Clay Fidobe Stone Masonry Timber Framing Wattle and Daub Thatch Living Roofs Permaculture Sun Community Energy Building Codes Permits

Natural Building: Workshops & Events

Natural Builders:

• By Location
  

• By Specialty
  

• Who Teach

Natural Building Network is a not-for-profit membership association promoting natural building principles, materials and practitioners worldwide. We support ecological regeneration, social justice, the building of community and economic opportunity, and the recognition of indigenous wisdom as essential in creating healthy, beautiful, and spiritually-uplifting habitation for everyone.

Welcome to the worldwide movement of renewable, sustainable and ecological living. The Natural Building Network is taking a leadership role. So can you.

FEATURED EVENTS

	“One Planet - Ours! Sustainability for the 22nd Century,” US Botanic Gardens, Washington, D.C.
	Senate Hearing- Straw-Bale Construction: Harvesting Its Potential As an Affordable and Energy-Efficient Building Strategy
	Natural Building Colloquium East- Bath, New York, USA

Natural Building Network in the News: Updated 19 August 2008 National Public Radio Weekend Edition: Yemeni Architecture, Dance Transmit Tradition Mother Earth News: Get Muddy! Make Earth Art Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Thinking About Building a Cob Home? Skagit Valley Herald: Building Au Naturel Ventura County Reporter: Castles of Sand (and Straw) Willamette Week: Sustainable Mud NY Times: Down and Dirty USA Today: Building from the Ground Up

“Natural Building is any building system which places the highest value on social and environmental sustainability. It assumes the need to minimize the environmental impact of our housing and other supporting systems while providing healthy, beautiful, comfortable and spiritually uplifting homes for everyone.”

Why Natural Building?

• The average size of a US house has doubled since 1949 to 2500 square feet. 

• In the next 50 years more buildings will be built than in human history to date.

• The average US home has over 13,000 board feet of lumber (one square foot of wood one inch thick). This equals one football field of clearcut forest for each house.

• The most effective strategy is for Americans to live in smaller, more space and energy efficient dwellings and businesses. 

• According to GCL: Global Cement and Lime Magazine concrete production is responsible for 8% of the human contribution to greenhouse gas emissions as each pound of concrete produced adds one pound of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere.

• The World Health Organization estimates 30% of houses worldwide are toxic enough to contribute to environmental illness. 

• More...

Our Members Are Changing the World for the Better
You Can Become a Member Too!

A Recent Survey of Leaders in Sustainability 
Defined Natural Building as:
Normal; Doing critical bridge work as we power down from petroleum; The central work that is essential to the oncoming shift; A solution to many problems; Accessible to all without subsidy; Beautiful because it follows nature; Safe and healthy for ourselves, our children and our environment; Democratic; Sustainable; Answers the question, "what can I do?"; Empowers individuals and communities; Emphasizes quality over quantity; Has a rich and successful history; A human right & responsibility; Traditional; Helps global cooling; Has profit in it; Conservative; Nature is the prime designer; Historic; A rejection of unnatural building; All people, all cultures practice natural building. This is a global practice and solution.

The Natural Building Network Supports the Natural Building and Sustainability Movement through: 

• Our promotion of Natural Building as a positive solution to wasteful, inefficient building practices and resource use.

• Our work in organizing and administering Natural Building gatherings and colloquia.

• Our work with government organizations, engineers, architects and code officials on behalf of safe, healthy and ecologically responsible human habitat. 

• Our promotion of Natural Building education as well as Natural Building events and activities through our extensive network.

• Our support of Natural Builders through resource sharing, networking and cooperation for sustainable solutions.

• Our financial support of low-income builders and projects.

• Our help in organizing relief efforts in the event of natural disaster or social crisis through the assistance of our skilled members.

• Our website, please explore, enjoy and act!

Read more from Executive Director, Jack Stephens

What is Natural Building?

Please Contribute to NBN or Become a Member. Your funding helps us keep this website and our projects going!

Would you help us be more effective in our work? Please consider contributing to our needs list:

Digital Projector
Recycled Copy Paper
Manila File Folders
Natural Building Books

Can you donate?
Please contact us!

Click Here to Compare Techniques of 
Natural Building Wall Systems

"Natural Building, Renewable Energy, Local Food and Community...
The Building Blocks" -Larry Brown

Elke Cole reflects on the 
2007 Texas Natural Building Colloquium

Sign up for our Email Newsletter

Help Us Spread the Word! Support the Connection of our Global Community -
Join NBN!

 New Online Bookstore and Consignment Shoppe! (Thanks to Industrial Rustic for sharing profit with NBN!)

Natural Building Network Endorses the 2030 Challenge

Notable Quote:
"Buildings and their construction account for nearly half of all the greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumed in [the US] each year. Globally, the percentage is even greater. And architects hold the key to turning down the global thermostat."
"The Building You're In Fuels Global Warming" 
Ed Mazria

Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General,
On Climate Change

Building or Renovating? Reduce Your Waste! Click Here to Learn How

2007 UN Climate Change Report: "Humans Very Likely Cause Global Warming"
more

Help a Natural Builder! Contribute to the Ernie Wisner Recovery Fund

City Repair in Portland, Oregon is effectively supporting the rebirth of the village, creating opportunities for the city to be a vibrant outgrowth of healthy, active and safe neighborhoods. Watch this video to learn more

Not Just Green, Natural...

    "... the danger posed by war to all of humanity – and to our planet – is at least matched by the climate crisis and global warming. 

By now, I believe that the world has reached a critical stage in its efforts to exercise responsible environmental stewardship. Despite our best intentions and some admirable efforts to date, degradation of the global environment continues unabated, and the world's natural resource base is being used in an unsustainable manner. 

Moreover, the effects of climate change are being felt around the world. The latest assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has established a strong link between human activity and climate change. The Panel's projections suggest that all countries will feel the adverse impact. But it is the poor -- in Africa, small island developing States and elsewhere -- who will suffer most, even though they are the least responsible for global warming." 
--Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General, 1 March 2007 New York, NY USA. 

UN Secretary-General's Complete Speech Transcript: http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=2462 

Welcome to the Natural Building Network! NBN was founded to help move Natural Building from "the Fringe, to a Force". The Natural Building movement is growing and NBN is taking a leadership role in promoting sustainable, renewable living, legalizing sustainability and supporting those working in the movement worldwide. 

The Natural Building Network provides a place where the curious, interested and motivated can find skilled help and accurate and up-to-date information, and where people can gather to share ideas, announce events and opportunities.  Here you can find a listing of trained builders, contractors, teachers, workshops or skilled volunteers near you with whom you can build, learn or collaborate.

Founded in 2005, our charter members include pioneers in the Natural Building movement and non-professionals with a passion for ecologically sound and fundamentally safe ways of living. Our members come from all walks of life but share a care for our planet. We share an interest in seeing Natural Building become a safe, beautiful, renewable and common  sight in our modern landscape.

NBN is at the forefront of the Natural Building movement. We are helping to facilitate Natural Building guilds throughout the world; we are working to create effective connections between Natural Builders, building officials and policymakers;  soon, we will have technical data for engineers, architects, contractors and subcontractors; we are ready to help builders connect and mobilize in the event of natural disaster. .

For many years Natural Builders have been working together to advance the knowledge of Natural Building and to share it with others.  Since 1994 the Natural Building Colloquium has been held in North America to provide a place to collaborate, share information, present ideas, build things and have a great time. It has usually been a week-long event. In 2008 NBN will host the International Natural Building Colloquium. These are wonderful events, but most agree, a week or two a year is not enough.  Many have asked for a place where the movement can gather year-round.  NBN is here to meet that need.

Our intent is to create community locally while networking regionally, nationally and internationally.  This work is funded through the support of our members. Your membership and financial contribution provide benefits that are mutually supportive - for yourself, for the Natural Building movement, and for our communities. Will you please become a member?  Your financial support of the Natural Building Network builds momentum for the movement.  Your support of Natural Building is making the world a more renewable and sustainable place.

Together we are providing real solutions to real problems, bringing out the best in each other, and contributing to a better world.

Thank you.

Jack Stephens
Executive Director
jack@nbnetwork.org

Click Here to see photos from the Texas Natural Building Colloquium 2007
(Thanks to naturalbuildingtexas.org)

Mesa Verde, Colorado, USA, Inhabited 600-1300 A.D.

photos of contemporary natural buildings at the top of this page courtesy of Catherine Wanek