Join us for a Natural Building course and learn about all aspects of sustainable building with natural materials. Live in and explore the natural builds around our farm, enjoy off-grid permaculture living deep in nature, eat nutrient-rich organic food and attend some yoga classes.
Natural Building Course dates
Join us for a Natural Building course and learn about sustainable design, straw bale building, cordwood, earthbags, natural stone and wattle & daub. The course is based in central Portugal on an off-grid Permaculture farm with many natural building examples.
This course is run straight after our Summer Permaculture Design course, allowing you to join both courses or just one of them.
July 17th – July 30th 2023 – Book Now
What to expect?
Please check out this video from our 2022 course so you can get an idea of what our course is like.
Curriculum
This course is ideal for anyone who would like hands-on experience with natural building. It is considered an introductory course as you will get experience in various building techniques.
- 1 day tour of natural buildings using all techniques
- 1 day theory on sustainable building and design
- 1 day practical on each of the following techniques
- Harvesting materials from the land
- Cordwood
- Straw Bale
- Earthbag
- Wattle and Daub
- Earth Plastering
- Lime Plastering
What is included in the Natural Building Course?
- Tour of our permaculture farm and natural buildings
- Three Yoga classes per week
- Three healthy organic meals per day, most of the produce coming from the farm
- Working on real-life projects using various natural building techniques
- Free camping (or option to hire a caravan, tipi or tent)
Facilitator: Laurence Manchee
Since starting Keela Yoga Farm and with the help of volunteers, the local community and course participants, Laurence has completed a straw bale house which he now lives in, the straw bale community house, a wattle and daub chicken house, a long drop compost toilet using stone and wattle and daub, a straw bale greenhouse, a cordwood & wattle and daub barn and a cordwood yoga room and much more. Each time he builds, he manages to decrease the carbon footprint of the building and use more natural materials, bringing the cost down of the building. A sustainable building would use all local natural and recycled materials at zero cost.
Laurence is also on the Board for WWOOF Portugal, a writer for Permaculture Magazine UK and manages an agroforestry and reforestation program. He has managed over 500 volunteers at Keela Yoga Farm and also runs Permaculture Design Courses.
