Cordwood and Straw Bale – Together at Last!

August 12 – 16, 2012

(Sunday noon through Thursday afternoon)

Have you dreamed about building an enchanting woodland retreat or a charming backyard garden shed? Creating something beautiful with hand tools and found materials? Using old fence rails or straw bales as construction materials? And along the way, learning to tell the difference between a Robertson and a Phillips screwdriver? If so, then this course is for you. This hands-on workshop will give you the opportunity to learn about the ancient building technique of cordwood masonry and hone up on some basic carpentry skills in the process. You will also learn how to build and plaster with straw bale. No prior building or carpentry experience is required to take part in this workshop. Just come with a sense of adventure and we will teach you everything you need to know!

After lunch in the straw bale lodge on Sunday, we will spend the afternoon talking about different styles of cordwood construction: stackwall, round (or octagonal or hexagonal) buildings, and cordwood as infill for post-and-beam structures. We will also learn about the versatility and beauty of straw bale construction. Different types of mortar and plaster will be described, and we will view examples of cordwood buildings as well as taking a closer look at the Wintergreen Lodge, a straw bale building constructed in 2008. We will discuss the advantages of using a living roof on cordwood and/or straw bale buildings as we tour the Wintergreen property where there are already six cordwood structures in place: the Hobbit House, the Smoke House, the Meadow Hut, the Sauna, the Bake Oven, and the Root Cellar. Then, if the group is eager to get started, we may even mix a batch or two of mortar and start working on the cordwood before we break for dinner.

On the following morning, will start to build in earnest, mixing mortar, building cordwood walls, and insulating the cordwood with sawdust and lime. We will continue with the cordwood building process on Tuesday and Wednesday, incorporating coloured glass into the building design, and perhaps framing in a door and a window. On Tuesday we will also begin stuffing the straw bales into the two walls that will be built with straw (they say that the first little piggy had it right – he just forgot the plaster!).

On the final day of the workshop, if all has gone well, we will begin the living roof assembly for the new cabin, getting everyone involved in raising the roof. By the end of the workshop, you will have an excellent introduction to cordwood masonry and straw bale, and with the experience and resources you will have acquired at Wintergreen, you should be ready to begin building on your own.

The Instructors: Rena Upitis & Tina Therrien

Rena Upitis is a mixed media artist, musician, teacher, and timber frame carpenter. She has an abiding interest in sustainable architecture and has built several small cedar cordwood buildings with the help of friends and family. Her design for the Wintergreen lodge uses strawbale and a living roof. Rena studied with Rob and Jaki Roy at the Earthwood Building School in the summer of 2006, and returned back to Wintergreen and promptly built the Hobbit House, one of four cordwood structures on the land.

Camel’s Back Construction, Ontario’s first straw bale building company, has been in operation since 1998. Tina Therrien is sole proprietor of the company, and she brings her passion of the natural building world and teaching to the forefront of the business. There are many talented and skilled employees who round out the team of camels with exceptional plastering, woodworking, and straw bale abilities.

Tina spent three weeks in Haiti working on the country’s first ever straw bale building with Builders without Borders in December 2010. She is returning to Haiti for two months to work with the Haitian group, Centre d’Intervention Jeunesse in a community in the Artibonite Valley who have built a compressed earth block school. This community is starting a Natural Building School and a School of Music.

Camel’s Back has created both residential and commercial buildings – including the Wintergreen lodge. Their buildings, ranging from small studios to 10,000 foot buildings, have been round, oval, square, and rectagonal. The shape of the new building at Wintergreen, scheduled to be constructed in 2012, is yet to be determined!

Tuition: $225 for singles; special rate for couples or friends: $300. HST extra.

Accommodation, all meals, snacks, and use of facilities for the duration of the workshop: $350 (tenting p.p.), $395 (bunks p.p.), $425 (shared rooms or cabins, p.p.), $495 (double bed, single occupancy), $625 (double bed, shared). For those staying off-site, meals and facilities are $275 p.p. HST extra.

Workshop registration closes July 29, 2012.