We will be building with the Winners Circle Project High School Students a Cob Oven and Kitchen space for F.D Roosevelt High School in Hyde Park NY! Its a private workshop but its going to be amazing!
This is a full immersion 5 day Natural Building workshop where Cob Therapy will team up with the Finger Lakes School of Natural Building students. From the ground up we will construct a small structure using materials from the environment we all harvest, process and manipulate together to create a outhouse/humanure building on the beautiful Backbone Farm You will learn a variety of natural building skills in this workshop and gain the confidence that will be needed for you to become an earthen builder and construct a building on your own property.
Who: professional builders and novices alike who want to learn in a hands on environment about building with locally available materials including round wood, clay, sand, and straw, and salvaged or surplus material.
What: We will construct a small building from foundation to roof using natural material. We will select and process round wood poles for the frame and clay, sand, and straw for the walls. Students will also work with rammed earth tires, slip form stone and salvaged wood.
At the end of the workshop, students will retain a baseline knowledge of the basic materials needed to create a natural building.
Discussions will include: wood species and selection, natural plaster and cob formulation, foundation and roof design, and site selection/ passive solar design.
We will also tour completed natural buildings on site including a large barn, smaller outbuildings, and a strawbale timber frame home.
When: Wednesday - Sunday 9am-5pm
Where: Backbone Farm, Trumansburg N.Y.
Cost: $555 earlybird: ($600 after June 1st)
(this includes lunch each day and a Saturday night BBQ)
to register or more info: email matteolundgren@gmail.com
Where to stay: here are some options
There is free rustic camping in the Fingerlakes National Forest 5 minutes from site
Camping at Our Friends at Hawk Meadow Farm Hip Camp
Camping at TAUGHANNOCK FALLS STATE PARK
This is a 2 day workshop where you will learn how to apply cob to different wall systems and also clay and lime plaster on the Cob/Cordwood Bathhouse at the beautiful Hawk Meadow Farm! We will also be building a curvy and beautiful cob shower wall. Participants will get their hands in the mud and learn how to mix and apply different clay and lime mixes, including cob, clay plaster and lime plaster. Students will gain the confidence to use these techniques in the future. Participants will also learn how to source materials necessary to make different natural building mixes and practice the application techniques using trowels and hands.
Matteo’s enthusiasm for natural building is contagious. His teaching style focuses around empowering participants to really “go for it” and learn by doing. Throughout the workshop he weaves stories of the natural world and he really dives deeply into “The Why”
In this workshop you will have ample hands-on experience with guided instruction from Matteo. He will cover the whole range of comprehensive information on the world of Natural Building. You will also be fed an organic homemade healthy lunch. Please reach out if you need lodging accommodations
Cost: $225
Please email me to register: MatteoLundgren @ Gmail
I will be giving a lecture and demonstration at Hawk Meadow Farm in Trumansburg New York! On site Cob Therapy has helped to create 3 different structures using cob and other natural materials: A outdoor kitchen with Cob Oven. A Cob Bathhouse with composting toilets. And I helped with different stages of a Strawbale House with Clay and Lime Plaster finishes.
In this talk I will discuss Cob Building applications in the modern world, natural design strategies to improve our well being, and different ways to apply clay and other natural building materials in existing structures. As many of us are so far removed from this element in our modern lives, we repeatedly witness the "therapy" that cob offers builders and homeowners-Earth is energizing, detoxifying and an incredibly strong building material and has been used as a building material on every continent, in nearly every part of human history because of its versatility, availability and functionality. Cob Therapy aims to connect clients and students to Nature through the Art of Natural Building.
The event is Free or by donation: Please Register here:
Cob Therapy teams up with the Winners Circle Project to lead a 2 day cob building team building workshop for high school students at Waverly HS, Watkins Glen HS and Owego Free Academy. This build will introduce high school students to the natural building world and give them an opportunity to work together to complete a big build project. Our goal is to help lay the team building grounds that will be necessary for these students to work together to build a factory five race car during their school year and a racing team that will learn skills (Marketing, digital communication, sales, fundraising, personal empowerment, etc) that will prepare them to embark on their own path towards success.
Come join us at the Grassroots Music Festival in Trumansburg New York to take a free cob building workshop. We will be making Dorodango’s and fairy villages…And if you come at the beginning you will learn how to mix a proper Cob mix! https://www.grassrootsfest.org/
This is a full immersion 4 day workshop where students will help construct a 8x12 Outhouse building. The building will be made of 4 separate natural building wall systems. Cordwood, Strawbale, Cob and Light Clay Straw walls. Students will actually experience working with different wall systems to see the advantages and disadvantages of all of them. We will construct a natural stone foundation for our walls to sit on. Students will also help construct the roof. The roof will use round black locust posts and other wood milled on site. You will learn a variety of natural building skills in this workshop and gain the confidence that will be needed for you to become an earthen builder and construct a building on your own property.
What you’ll learn
Basic natural building techniques and skills used for building complete natural homes.
Natural design strategies and biomimicry strategies to make spaces healthier, more sustainable and alive.
The science of identifying building materials from the environment, Identifying the right materials and how to process them.
Organic Homemade lunch will be included in the workshop along with drinks throughout the day. If you would like to camp on site please inquire. It is a $475 for this 4 day workshop.
After this workshop, you will feel confident that you can
build yourself a cob structure
remodel, renovate an existing home, using natural materials
use cob to create garden walls, outdoor fireplaces…
Here is a beautiful summation written by my Mentor Conrad Rogue: “Earth is the mother of all building materials. For millennia, and all over the world, people have used earth to build beautiful, simple, efficient and inexpensive homes. It's plentiful, ecological and non-toxic. Plus, it can't burn, won't rot and is much simpler to build with than conventional construction.
We will teach you how to use clay-soil to build just about everything. From strong structural cob walls, to using strawbales and clay plaster, to beautiful earthen floors….
The essence of your learning experience will revolve around developing a deep understanding of how to process and combine a few simple materials: clay-soil, sand and straw. How you apply that in your building adventures is then up to you, but you will find the possibilities endless and exciting.”
At the beautiful Spice of Life Permaculture Farm in Alpine NY we will be building an earthen oven. This Oven will be built using the clay soil from the property! You will learn all the different mixes along with the basic skills necessary to build your own pizza oven. We are asking on a sliding scale, $50 to $100 for this workshop. You will be provided lunch and we will all share dinner at the end of the day as well. This is going to be a fun time and I highly recommend grabbing a spot in this showdown!
We will be doing a finish Clay Plaster on Strawbale Walls. Students will learn the finish skills required to make a great exterior finish…
Learn how to build your own wood fired pizza oven using clay soil while diving into the art of natural building
May 7 (Saturday) 11:00am-5:00pm: Pizza Oven Making Work Party, come and join us at The Soil Factory as we build our very own clay pizza oven with Matteo Lundgren: This will take place right in Ithaca
We will be working side by side as you learn trowel skills to apply clay plaster on interior walls
Come learn how to apply clay plaster to strawbale walls on this epic small cabin being built out in Mecklenburg New York. Limited space is available. Please email me if you are interested.
This will be an epic build for all the staff at an amazing Regenerative Farm in Afton Virginia. This workshop is closed to the public. We will be building a DOUBLE Oven…Be on the look out for Pictures
This is a 1 day workshop where you will learn how to clay plaster on Drywall! This is a powerful way for participants to be introduced to the beauty and functionality of Natural building with clay plaster; an art form most participants can try in their own homes or apartment spaces after attending this workshop. You will learn the basics of how to apply clay plaster on a variety of different wall substrates but most of our hands on work will be on Drywall. Participants will also learn how to source the materials necessary to make different clay plaster mixes and practice the application techniques using trowels and hands.
Matteo’s enthusiasm for natural building is contagious. His teaching style focuses around empowering participants to really “go for it” and learn by doing. Throughout the workshop he weaves stories of the natural world and he really dives deeply into “The Why”
In this workshop you will have ample hands-on experience with guided instruction from Matteo. He will cover the whole range of comprehensive information on the world of Natural Building. You will also be fed an organic homemade healthy lunch by Peaches and free camping access.
Cost: $110
Each Day we will work from 8:30am to 5pm.
Please email Matteo to hold your spot: MatteoLundgren @ gmail.com
Learn how to and build a wood-fired earthen bread and pizza oven from start to finish.
Cob Therapy will lead an outdoor kitchen-building workshop at a Permaculture community in Trumansburg, New York. Come learn, and participate in building a custom culinary space, which will be designed for frequent daily use, as well as preserving the summer's garden bounty. From start to finish, participants will help construct a cob oven (or earthen oven) often used for bread or pizza. Unique to this workshop will be the additional components of a rocket grill for wood fired grilling, as well as a rocket stove. Students will learn the basics of cob construction; including several different mixes, and how to use them for different building applications. This will be a comprehensive, hands-on workshop, and will leave students inspired and empowered to apply cob building on their own!
COST: $150 before June 1st (Includes Lunch)
COST: $175 after June 1st (Includes Lunch)
Please email me directly to sign up: matteolundgren @ gmail
Returning Vipassana students are invited to join us for the upcoming straw bale building and plastering work period between April 4-16. Between 20-30 servers are needed everyday to support this earthen building project. Old students can come for part, or for the entire whole period. In addition to straw bale construction, Lime and Clay Plastering, kitchen work, cleaning and gardening help will also be needed. An application to serve can be found on our course schedule page linked here:
On Friday July 21st we will be doing a Kids Cob Building workshop from 1 to 4pm in the Kids area. On Saturday we will be giving a talk on Natural Design and Cob Building from 3pm to 4:15pm (description below).
"Cob Building Works"
Earth has been used as a building material on every continent, in nearly every part of human history because of its versatility, availability and functionality. In this workshop we will discuss Cob Building applications in the modern world, natural design strategies to improve our well being, and different ways to apply mud in existing structures. As many of us are so far removed from this element in our modern lives, we repeatedly witness the "therapy" that cob offers builders and home owners-earth is energizing, detoxifying and an incredibly strong building material. Our company: "Cob Therapy" aims to connect to Nature through the Art of Natural Building.
In this workshop we will construct an earthen oven, an outdoor pizza and bread oven, from start to finish. We will learn different techniques to build a foundation, build a stem wall, different ways to naturally insulate, learn how to mix cob properly, learn the different recipes for clay plasters and earthen mixes, as well as learning the basic concepts of constructing your own natural home. This oven building workshop will be hands on and physical. We will be discussing a variety of different natural building topics along with natural design concepts. Come get inspired in the middle of the City!
$200! Extended! This includes Lunch. Please fill out the registration form below and Use the "Donate" button below to make your payment and secure your spot. Can't wait!
Please email me with questions: MatteoLundgren @ Gmail
Ever wondered how to bring the benefits of earthen materials into a house that isn't a cob house? Instead of using latex paints and other toxic products you can clay plaster your walls to gain all the benefits of living in cob houses! Learn how. Learn the mixes! Feel the power. This workshop is an intensive day where we will be applying clay plaster to lite straw clay studded walls and over drywall.
Email me for details (matteo.lundgren @ gmail ) ...Class limit is 6 participants. Our goal is for you to learn plastering techniques and understand specific mixes for a variety of applications. You will learn by doing...
We make all of our own primers and clay plastering mixes...Instead of buying American Clay products that are pre-mixed and pre-made, students will understand how to make mixes as well as every component within them
4 day Cob Building intensive 10am -6pm Daily ~ Lunch provided, camping available
$350 early bird - $400 after May 31st
Register online at Hawk Meadow Farm
This workshop is very hands-on; expect to get physical and your hands muddy. Prepare to be INSPIRED!
We will also discuss the pro’s and cons of a variety of alternative building strategies, including Cob building, adobe, earthbags, strawbale, rammed earth, and earthships. We will cover the basics around alternatives to conventional building practices, including; foundation work, stemwall choices, wall fill materials, insulation considerations, thermal mass, roofing and other natural options for finishing and upgrading existing spaces. All while exploring how to apply “cradle to cradle” design strategies in the building world.
We believe we need to reassess our relationship with the living spaces we occupy. “Just as we have learned how important a healthy diet is to our well being, it may be more important to live in homes and spaces that nurture our biology on the same level.”
A 2 day workshop: 9am to 5pm work day. A hearty locally grown lunch will be served from 12 to 1pm. $185 registration
REGISTER HERE ONLINE and learn more!
During this workshop we will build a Wood-fired Earthen Bread and Pizza Oven from start to finish.
Using the earth to shape the building world using natures design strategies
Workshop Calendar
