hi Everyone
this is to
wet your appetite for annual Roadtrip trip by the South Coast
Permaculture Guild to Hesperia Ca to see the Earth domes and Houses of
Architect Nader Khalili.
Saturday Dec 1 Roadtrip to visit visionary Architect Nader Khalili at
Calearth in Hesperia Ca. this is an all day annual trip to visit the
demonstration
site. This is an amazing adventure see what can be done with earth
and it is truly low cost beautiful housing that does not tax the earth's
biological
resources.
we will leave Santa Barbara at 6:30am and be back by 6 pm. for more info
call Wes Roe
964-1555 or email lakinroe@silcom.com, potluck lunch
Check his Website for pictures of the Earth buildings and more info and
article below
www.Calearth.org
CARPOOL Instructions
SANTA BARBARA DEPARTURE PLEASE BE ON TIME/Print Instructions to keep with
you:
The Hesperia/Cal Earth roadtrip is happening. Dress WARMLY to have fun
and be comfortable, the high desert can be cold. We will leave SB
Downtown 128 E Carrillo (Pueblo Building on corner of Carrillo and
Santa Barbara Street, park on street in front of building to organize car
pooling) Dec 1, SAT at 6:30am reach Ventura by 7:15 am at the
Carrows Restaurant Parking lot at Seaward, then on to Hesperia,
reaching there shortly after 10.
Will be back to SB by 6.pm
Please let me know if you are coming and how many and where you are
meeting us (Wes Roe 964-1555, lakinroe@silcom.com. )
DIRECTIONS To CAl Earth Nader Khalili Road Trip to Hesperia
>From Santa Barbara (about 3 hours) take Hwy 101 south to Hwy 126
proceed along to Hwy #5 turn south and proceed to Hwy#14 north go to
Pearblossom Hwy east to Hwy#138 south(east) proceed to Phelan Rd turn
left. Follow Phelan Rd as it crosses Hwy #395 and turns into Main St.
Take Main St past Hwy #15 to Topaz Rd, Turn left onto Topaz another left
on Live Oak, then your first right onto Baldy Lane at CalEarth sign.
Check a map because route is a little complex.
>From LA, take Hwy 15 north to Main St exit, Hesperia, turn right
proceed to 2nd stoplight, turn left onto Topaz, left on Live Oak first
right on Baldy Lane at Calearth Sign
Calearth website is
www.Calearth.org
phone is 760-224-0614
http://www.Calearth.org/whatnew/hstar1.htm
Hesperia Star
Nader Khalili shows off the inside of one of the dome houses he has
built at the Cal-Earth facility in Hesperia. Khalili came to Hesperia a
few years ago to teach others his techniques.
Inventor teaches the world to build sturdy houses
No less mystic than the earthen domes he constructs in Hesperia or the
Persian poet Rumi who inspired him to shift from designing skyscrapers to
building with adobe, Nader Khalili's ideas are gaining international
attention.
Imagine building a beautiful home with high,
arched ceilings out of little more than water, some barbed wire and the
dirt in your own backyard for about $1,500, then finishing it off with
tile, ornate windows and a few furnishings, all for a total of $7,000,
excluding labor. Single room domes are even less and can be constructed
in a matter of days.
"My work is to create the most beautiful
structures out of the simplest materials," Khalili said.
Students, artists, architects, environmentalists
and writers from all over the world have converged upon Hesperia to
rediscover the simple power of earth, air, water, and fire (heat from the
sun) - the only ingredients necessary for Khalili's fire-proof, flood and
earthquake resistant domes.
Khalili's California Institute of Earth, Art and
Architecture (Cal-Earth) has even gained the attention of United Nations
researchers.
One U.N. official said the ceramic domes are
ideal for environmental refugees, disaster-ridden areas and people who
live in slum housing because Khalili's superadobe eliminates many of the
obstacles aid agencies face when providing assistance.
"The cost is really low," said
Nassrine Azimi, chief of the United Nations Institute for Training and
Research in New York. "I presume if the technology were perfected it
could compete with the cost of a tent, and that is tremendous. We think
it has the potential to absolutely change the way many aid agencies
work."
Several years ago, five Iraqui refugees built 14
of the domes in six days
Another benefit of Khalili's superadobe is that
it can be expanded as conditions grow more stable, Azimi said.
Now, Khalili is currently constructing what he
calls, "Earth 1," a typical American home, with three bedrooms,
a two-car garage, and a few other advantages.
"It's the standard American dream house," Khalili said.
"It's also fireproof, hurricane resistant and earthquake
resistant."
Although Hesperia building official Tom Harp was
skeptical when Khalili first arrived in town and applied for a permit to
construct his domes in 1991, he said he has been pleasantly surprised by
the structures' sturdiness.
The buildings, which are constructed out of
nearly 1-foot wide walls made out of long sandbags filled with dirt,
water, and perhaps a little cement for more permanent structures,
withstood the city's wind and earthquake standards.
"Quite frankly, I didn't think he would
meet building codes when he first started off on the whole venture,"
Harp said. "The buildings all stood up to the tests engineered. I
would not have guessed that would have happened."
City officials reported receiving inquiries on
the Cal-Earth Institute from other countries, including Japan and South
Africa.
"There's been a lot of interest with the
International Conference of Building Officials," Harp said.
"It is considering developing a section in
the building code to address alternative types of construction. There's a
big movement for green construction, types of construction that are less
damaging to the environment, and you can't get much greener than earthen
construction." Because Khalili's concept
requires no trees to be cut down and can be built from materials
available everywhere, he hopes his ceramic domes will become the housing
for the new millenium, both here on earth and perhaps eventually in lunar
and Martian colonies.
"What we are teaching (people) is they can
go to any place in this world, dig and build themselves and others in the
community a home using earth, sun, wind and the natural elements,"
Khalili said. "While here, they discover their own creative
potential."
His students come from different walks of life,
courses of study and even different countries, but many share similar
experiences at Cal-Earth.
Frank Mallat of Indio hopes to build his dream
house out of superadobe.
"I've been an environmentalist for thirty
years, and my wife and I bought 70 acres in Desert Hot Springs. We'll
build our own house and well our own water," he said.
Amid the otherworldly appearance of the domes,
students create from their own sweat and hands, many find more than what
they were looking for when they first arrived.
"It's opened me up to a lot more out
there," Elizabeth Muniz, a 3-D art student from Visalia, said.
"It's put me more in touch with nature."
Emiko Peterson, an architectural student of
Anaheim, said the opportunity to study at Cal-Earth has opened her
horizons to things she didn't learn in school.
"I guess they teach more about form-making,
like massive sculptures," Peterson said of traditional architectural
school. "What I'm learning here has a more spiritual quality and
more meaningful form."
Some students come to learn Khalili's technique,
but never leave, like painter-turned-superadobe teacher Michael Huskey of
Apple Valley and Khalili's associate, Iliona Outram, an architect from
London.
Huskey found a more meaningful art medium in the
domes, he said. Outram who is also the daughter of a British architect,
always wanted to learn earth architecture.
"I met him and one month later I moved to
Hesperia. That was nine years ago," Outram
said. "The joy of the work and the
inspiration Nader gives are worthwhile for humanity. Instead of just
being an architect, I wanted to do something for the
environment."
The public may vist Cal-Earth during its open
house offered on the first Saturday of every month.
For more information on Cal-Earth or Nader
Khalili, visit
www.calearth.org,
or call (760)244-0614.