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From: Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>Date: May 23, 2009 5:05:15 AM PDTSubject: /May 28/SB Perm Network ECO-Film Night /Honoring the Life of Visionary Architect Nader Khalili
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
ECO-Film NightHonoring the Life of Visionary Architect Nader Khalili
with film-maker Dastan Khalili & documentary film feature
"Earth Turns to Gold"
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Santa Barbara Public Library, Faulkner Gallery
7pm, donation $5"Earth turns to Gold in the hands of the Wise"Rumi O n Thursday, May 28, at 7pm, Santa Barbara Permaculture Network ECO-Film Night honors the life of visionary architect Nader Khalili and the California Institute of Earth & Architecture (Cal-Earth), with a feature film documentary "Earth Turns to Gold" by Dastan Khalili. Designing with Nature, using Earth, Water, Air, Fire and the simple shapes of arches, vaults and domes, Nader Khalili taught we could easily build homes for humanity with nothing more than the soil beneath our feet. He suggests that if we recognize the equilibrium of these elements, we will never have any environmental problems. Learning the perfect harmony of nature and how it can be applied to architecture, this practical harmony can help us build habitats that are sustainable, nontoxic, and ecologically sound. Leaving behind pitched roofs of conventional housing, his arched earthen structures don't require a single tree to be cut, helping to eliminate deforestation around the globe Because of the dome egg shaped "shell-a-structure" design, they are some of the strongest buildings possible, able to withstand hurricanes, floods, and fires. Originally designed to be ceramic (fired earth) houses, if properly built, grow stronger in fire, and have been tested to 6.5 on the Richter scale for earthquakes, making them perfect candidates for housing in Southern California. Santa Barbara Permaculture Network began visiting Cal-Earth more than ten years ago for annual road-trips in the Fall to follow the evolving site and its many innovative building prototypes. A strong friendship developed that lasted until the death of Nader Khalili last year. Noting that Khalili's work actually started in Santa Barbara County, with a 600 ft prototype house on an 850 acre proposed village site in New Cuyama in the late 1980's, Santa Barbara Permaculture Network wanted to acknowledge his extraordinary life with an evening of tribute in our community. Khalili was a Muslim born in Iran. His grandmother raised him on Sufi mysticism and the poetry of Rumi, a poet born in 1 3th century Persia, who inspired all of his work. Khalili became an architect who built high-rises in both Los Angeles and Tehran. In the 1970's he took a sabbatical from his busy career to travel through the deserts of the Middle East on motorcycle. While searching for simple structures suitable for housing the poor he noticed dome-like structures used for baking and grain storage that had stood strong through the millennia in areas frequented by earthquakes. He returned to found Cal-Earth, located eventually on a ten acre site in Hesperia, California, where he worked tirelessly to perfect a building technique that would use only natural, on-site materials, but could also pass rigorous building and safety codes. One of his best-known inventions was the “Super Adobe” Earthbag construction system, developed for NASA in the 1980's, who had put out a call for designs for structures on the Moon and Mars. Khalili argued the same wisdom and logic for using on-site materials, as transporting materials from Earth would cost more than gold. Khalili's smaller Earthbag houses were proposed as affordable solutions for poverty stricken areas in Africa, India, and South America. He received special recognition from the United Nations for his “Housing for the Homeless” proposal in 1987 and his prototypes were recognized with the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004. He is the author of numerous books including Racing Alone, andSidewalks on the Moon, and was an accomplished translator of the poetry of Rumi. At the time of his death, he was perfecting a 3 bedroom, two car garage house designed with middle America and the suburbs in mind. With the devastating fires that had frequented all of Southern California in recent years, he felt it was time to build houses that fit into the fire ecology of our region. Dastan Khalili is a film-maker who has recently finished a series of films of his fathers life work. His Greenworks Company works in affiliation with the Cal-Earth non-profit, and is dedicated to making and distributing environmental and humanitarian films and productions. Copies of the films and books will be available for purchase at the event.
The event takes place on Thursday, May 28, 7pm at the downtown Santa Barbara Public Library, 40 East Anapamu St, Santa Barbara. Donation $5, no reservations needed. The event is presented by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Non-Profit. For more information, (805) 962-2571, margie@sbpermaculture.org, www.sbpermaculture.org
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More Info/Website,You Tube sites:
Cal-Earth website: www.calearth.org
Cal-Earth on You Tube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5_LPYFyaFE&feature=channel_page
www.youtube.com/user/dastonkaliliSanta Barbara Permaculture Network
an educational non-profit since 2000
(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie@sbpermaculture.org
www.sbpermaculture.org
"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order to grow." - AnonymousFirst Annual Southern California Permaculture Convergence August 2008
http://socalifornia.permacultureconvergence.org