Village Arts Building Archives - Earthaven Ecovillage

What Klara Learned

Earthaven Admin Team — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:03:14 +0000

Klara Wengman, 25-years old and an architecture student in Copenhagen, Denmark, spent her summer as an intern with the Natural Building School at Earthaven. Working directly with Paul Caron three days a week on the Village Arts Building project, she says she went through an enormous shift in her understanding of the building process. “At my school, we focus on design. This was an amazing hands-on experience” that, she said, gave her a holistic perspective on the meaning of construction.

Her program for the summer included learning Paul’s peeled, round pole timber framing process, assisting him in designing the unique jig needed for the joinery, learning basic woodworking techniques, and (in her spare time!) thinking about how she might design one of the needed buildings for the Village Center. Klara also wound up on the core team for the Council Hall roof project, which recently planted a fourth of the lower roof in sedums and set up a drip irrigation system to see if this living roof method works.

Easy to love, work with and engage in upbeat conversation, Klara returned to Denmark following a visit to sister ecovillage Dancing Rabbit in Rutledge, Missouri, where she intended to interview a resident architect and see what more she could learn about community building design. We look forward to hearing more about that!

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Village Arts Building Takes Shape and You Can Help Too!

Earthaven Admin Team — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:50:31 +0000

by Arjuna da Silva, Earthaven Founder and natural building enthusiast

An exciting development on Another Way this year has been the slow but steady progress on the Village Arts Building (VAB). Located right before the entrance to Useful Plants Nursery and the Third Creek Crossing, the VAB is the brainchild of Earthaven co-founder Paul Caron, known around Asheville as The Furniture Magician. Expanding his fully equipped woodshop to incorporate a working wood-products cooperative and an art and craft studio co-op on his leasehold has been Paul’s dream since before Earthaven was established.

Stacking foundation stones for the Village Arts Building.

Projects involving natural building become the hub of learning opportunities for amateurs and professionals alike. The Village Arts Building is now providing long-term interns and short-term students with a variety of opportunities to build naturally and take those lessons on with them. This year’s Natural Building School internship program, which includes folks from California, Alabama, New York and jolly old England, has to date included directional tree-felling, round peeled pole timber framing, basic rubble foundation work and dry-stack stone wall building.

Natural Building School Interns, Paul Caron (right), and friends.

Next up as the stone wall sets is a Natural Building Camp, a 6-day adventure in building with cob and compressed earth blocks that adds to the progress at the VAB. Combining the pre-made blocks with cob will allow more progress than cob alone, and will give participants an opportunity to seriously consider the pros and cons for privately and professionally building masonry walls.

Additional opportunities in natural building this year include workshops in other earth-and-straw wall techniques, cordwood and earthen plasters. Visit www.naturalbuildingschool.com for updated information and registration assistance.

The Natural Building Camp begins on Tuesday, August 24^th. Registrations are being accepted for the entire 6-day camp and for the weekend only. Cost is $100 per day or $425 for all six. You can also check in with Arjuna by phone for more information at 828 669-0114.

Arjuna da Silva is an Earthaven founder, Culture’s Edge president, and former Airspinner. She is coordinating the Natural Building School workshops at Earthaven this summer.

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News Notes – July 2010

Debbie — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:17:12 +0000

Greetings from Earthaven Ecovillage! We’re enjoying the hot, hot days of summer, with tomatoes and basil from our gardens and swimming in the creek!

Now you can read about Earthaven daily life in the Earthaven blog, featuring anecdotes and photos from Earthaven residents. Recent articles report on the Salvation Alley cleanup, garlic harvesting, and preventing birds from striking windows.

Tanya Carwyn became a full member on June 13. Since our Spring newsletter, Kaitlin Hetzner, Jonathan Swiftcreek, eli Swiftcreek, and Karen Taylor have all become Provisional Members. You can read the second installment of Jonathan’s journal about being incoming member in this newsletter.

Left: Tanya being lifted to the song: “Tanya, you are beautiful. Tanya, you are strong. So wonderful to be with, we’ll help you carry on. Tanya, hear our loving song.”

In construction news: The Council Hall addition, featuring a small kitchen, bathroom, and hookup of the Taylor water stove is complete! Many thanks and kudos to Todd, Darren, Brian, Greg, Paul, Geoff, and all the folks who carried it through! Rudy Ballentine and friends started building his home in the Loving Acres neighborhood and the Natural Building School apprentices have started the rubble foundation for the circular starwell in the new Village Arts Building.

Kimchi Rylander and Suchi Lathrop have been participating in Transition Asheville – a group co-creating a sustainable Asheville beyond Peak Oil.

Kimchi organized a Potluck Potlatch about sharing resources on July 7. A potlatch is a way for people to pass on things they no longer need, similar to a white elephant exchange except the gifts are intended to be useful rather than humorous. The Potluck Potlatch was also attended by Earthaven members Suchi, Debbie Lienhart, Goodheart Brown, and Chiwa.

Right: Kimchi explaining how the potlatch works.

Culture’s Edge and Earthaven Ecovillage are hosting a gathering on August 14 & 15 for people who are eager to use their heads, hearts, and hands to build community resiliency. See the articles about the Transition Town movement and about the gathering in this newsletter.

In Earthaven business news: The Southeast Wise Women are preparing for the sixth Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference at Lake Eden October 1-3, Steve Tormarenamed his teaching and consulting business The REAL Center, and Mihaly Bartalos and crew completed an extensive Appalachian-style railing project with mountain laurel.

The Earthaven office is seeking the donation of a used laptop that will be our new “networking computer hub” and offer villagers a place to surf the Internet. If you know of anyone who might like to support a growing ecovillage with an extra laptop, please ask them to consider donating it to Earthaven Ecovillage!

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Village Arts Building – It’s a Sign!

Earthaven Admin Team — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:26:07 +0000

Growing a community from the forest forward happens on so many levels. Creating decision-making protocols and gaining skill with them; discovering the lay of the land and working out site plans; developing infrastructure and sources of funding. Living with each other and deepening our connections. On and on it goes.

Now, in our fifteenth year, we can say we’ve done quite a bit of groundwork, and still the process continues. Today, and for the foreseeable tomorrows, long-term economic needs are getting extra attention. As a group, we’re looking into ways to help support individual entrepreneurial ventures, including building a code-approved kitchen in which to prepare foods for market, perhaps through a member co-op. The kitchen is likely to be housed in the new community building we’ve sited next to the Council Hall. The building could also contain start-up space for office and retail ventures. Expanding our hospitality potential with ample indoor accommodations could soon turn into both private and community-owned projects.

Another economically promising endeavor ready to jump off the drawing board is Paul Caron’s dream of an artists and craftspeople co-op, envisioned as an amalgamation of individual studios housed in one wing of the woodshop compound, where artists and artisans ply their trades independently (and also cooperatively on some projects), enjoying the camaraderie and reduced costs that co-ops provide.

Paul’s natural building work exchange and apprentice program officially began this year, and its first project—building a big shed roof adjacent to the woodshop—yielded much-needed storage space and a place for a wildly colorful sign dedicating the expansion of the shop into the future Village Arts Building, “a studio co-op.” (Pictured in the photo are sign painters Kimchi Rylander, Paul, Ian Snesrud, Flora Checknoff, and Dylan McBridewood.)

Paul is a master woodworker and “furniture magician,” and the designer of our Council Hall and the peeled, round-pole post and beam timber frame construction technique used on many buildings at Earthaven. His comprehensive woodshop is already well used by pro and amateur woodworkers for community projects, prototypes for market, and other woodworking needs. The existing shop is planned to contain the dustiest aspects of woodworking, while the ground floor of the wing will be devoted more to assembly and the cleaner aspects of the work. The second floor of the wing will house the free-style studios, and a third floor is envisioned for potential co-op member housing and social space.

To thrive in community, we need places and spaces that encourage us to build economic foundations we can rely on. The studio co-op idea has successfully supported the needs of artists and crafters throughout the world. If you are interested in Earthaven as a long-term adventure and think your art or craft could thrive in this kind of setting, or if you feel attracted to a natural building apprenticeship, please let us know.

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