....... seek not water, seek
thirst ......
On Saturday March 29th, from 11:00 am throughout the
afternoon, Nader Khalili's surviving family and students invite all
who were his friends and supporters to remember and celebrate his life,
words and works, at his Cal-Earth Institute, in Hesperia, California,
amongst his visionary architecture.
(www.calearth.org
)
Rather than flowers, please send a contribution to a charity which helps
the poor and refugees, in his name.
Nader Khalili, internationally renowned architect, author, and
educator, passed away at the age of 72 on Wednesday, March 5th.
Khalili was known for his innovation of the Geltaftan Earth-and-Fire
System known as Ceramic Houses and the Superadobe (sandbag and barbed
wire) construction technique also known as Earthbag. He developed the
SuperAdobe technology in 1984, in response to a NASA call for designs for
human settlements on the Moon and Mars. He had been involved with Earth
Architecture and Third World Development since 1975, and was a U.N.
consultant for Earth Architecture.
In 1991 he founded the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture
(Cal-Earth), in Hesperia, CA, which teaches his philosophy and earth
architecture technique. His sustainable solutions to human shelter have
been published by NASA, and awarded by the United Nations, and the Aga
Khan award for Architecture, amongst others.
He authored six books, including his international best-selling
auto-biography, "Racing Alone," (his newest book
"Emergency Shelter," available this summer) as well as two
highly-acclaimed volumes translating the poetry of Rumi, "Fountain
of Fire" and "Dancing the Flame."
Born in Iran as one of nine children, his quest was to empower the
world's poor and refugees to build homes using the earth under their
feet. He was a prominent American leader on the value of ethically based
architecture, where the needs of the homeless are considered above all
else.
Inspired by the mystical poetry of Rumi, (whose poems he studied and
translated, from an early age) his architecture was distilled from the
timeless principles of this universe and its timeless materials -- the
elements of earth, water, air, and fire, and has been described as
"Poetry crystallized into structure." Laura Huxley, Aldous
Huxley's widow, called Khalili the "practical visionary."
He was a quiet hero and a gentle humanitarian, who wrote:
"No one can prove there is a meaning to life. I must make my own
life meaningful. That is all."
He is survived by his wife Iliona, son Dastan, daughter Sheefteh,
eight brothers and sisters and extended family.
Other articles about his
life and work.
Nader Khalili's
Biography.
The Burial Ceremony took place on Tuesday March 11th at the Sontag Greek
Amphitheater, Pomona College, and at Oak Park Cemetery where he is
buried. The main entrance is at the end of Oak Park Drive, cross street
with Sycamore Avenue. (909) 399-5487 After the burial, the
wake/refreshments were at the Seaver House, Pomona College close to the
Eco-Dome and the organic garden.
how very close
is your soul with mine
i know for sure
everything you think
goes through my mind
i am with you
now and doomsday
not like a host
caring for you
at a feast alone
with you i am happy
all the times
the time i offer my life
or the time
you gift me your love
offering my life
is a profitable venture
each life i give
you pay in turn
a hundred lives again
in this house
there are a thousand
dead and still souls
making you stay
as this will be yours
a handful of earth
cries aloud
i used to be hair or
i used to be bones
and just the moment
when you are all confused
leaps forth a voice
hold me close
i’m love and
i’m always yours
- Rumi
NADER KHALILI, Architect and Author
![[]](cid:7.1.0.9.0.20080327214852.0327bb08@silcom.com.2)
photo by George Azar
Nader Khalili, California architect/author is the
world renowned Iranian-American Earth Architecture teacher and innovator
of the Geltaftan Earth-and-Fire System known as Ceramic Houses, and of
the Superblock construction system. Khalili received his philosophy and
architectural education in Iran, Turkey, and the United States. He has
been a licensed architect in the State of California since 1970, and has
practiced both in the U.S. and abroad. Since 1975 he has been involved
with Earth Architecture and Third World Development, and is a U.N.
(UNIDO) consultant for Earth Architecture, the Ceramic Houses and
SuperBlock Technologies. In 1984 the award for "Excellence in
Technology" went to him for the innovation of the Ceramic Houses
system, from the California Council of the American Institute of
Architects (CCAIA), and in 1987 Khalili's project "Housing for the
Homeless: Research and Education" received a Certificate of Special
Recognition from the U.N. International Year of Shelter for the Homeless
and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Since 1984, Lunar and Space habitation have become an integral part of
his work; his "Magma Structures" design, based on the Geltaftan
(Ceramic Houses) System, and "Velcro-Adobe" system (later to
become the Superblock/ sandbag and barbed wire system) were presented at
the 1984 NASA symposium, "Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the
21st Century". He was subsequently invited to Los Alamos National
Laboratory as a visiting scientist. He has presented papers and has been
published since 1984 in several symposiums and publications including
those of NASA, and the "Journal of Aerospace Engineering" for
which he was awarded by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Khalili
was a member of the team of the "Lunar Resources Processing
Project," along with the Princeton -based Space Studies Institute,
McDonnell Douglas Space Systems, and Alcoa.
Since 1982 Khalili has been directing the Architectural Research Program
at SCI-Arc, California. He is the director and founder of the Geltaftan
Foundation, and the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture
(Cal-Earth) since 1986. Current projects include the Sustainable Desert
Village and Hesperia Museum & Nature Center, the Rodeo/Arena for the
Mojave Desert city of Hesperia, erosion stabilization of Hesperia Lake, a
FEMA related project. At Cal-Earth he continues building and testing
prototypes in Earth Architecture for inclusion in the Uniform Building
Code. Recent work has been funded by grants from the National Endowment
for the Arts, the Katharine Tremaine Foundation, the Rex Foundation, the
Leventis Foundation, Our Ultimate Investment Foundation, the Turner
Foundation, and the Flora Family Foundation.
His five books were written while evolving these techniques and his
philosophy of architecture. "Racing Alone", and "Ceramic
Houses and Earth Architecture: How to Build Your Own", while
developing the Geltaftan "Earth and Fire" system for building
ceramic houses; "Sidewalks on the Moon", while designing for
the moon, a journey through tradition and technology; and "Rumi,
Fountain of Fire", translations of 75 poems from the Persian
language mystic poet, Rumi whose wisdom concerning humanity and the
elements of Earth, Water, Air and Fire are the inspiration behind his
work; and "Rumi, Dancing the Flame", 300 Rubayiat short poems
of Rumi.
![[]](cid:7.1.0.9.0.20080327214852.0327bb08@silcom.com.3)
photo by George Azar
Khalili's "Works and Words" have been
widely exhibited and published in the US and internationally including
the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Institute of American Indian
Arts Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and broadcast on national and
statewide TV channels such as the BBC World Service and Voice of America.
Over 100 hands-on workshops and lectures have been conducted in the U.S.
and abroad, from Princeton University/ Princeton New Jersey,
International Space University/MIT Boston Mass., to inmates of Chino and
other prisons, from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
/ Washington D.C., Los Alamos National Laboratory/ New Mexico, to many
Native American Reservations, the Eight Northern Pueblos/ San Juan New
Mexico, and from children in South Central Los Angeles hospitals to the
Universities of California, national and international universities.
Khalili's architectural works also include: the design of a
future-oriented community for 5,000 inhabitants for Future City/Villages,
Intl. in New Cuyama, California in 1988 (prototype structures were built
on-site, and pre-fabricated vault modules were built, fired and glazed at
a brick factory); Malekshahr of Isfahan, a community for 20,000, which
was designed and partially constructed by 1979; the Middle East
headquarters of Dupont/ Polyacryl was designed and supervised, completed
in 1978; over 100 projects of conventional buildings ranging from
high-rise to single residence.
Geltaftan Foundation/ Cal-Earth: 10376 Shangri La
Avenue, Hesperia CA 92345.
Tel: (760) 244-0614 Fax: (760) 244-2201
Email: calearth@aol.com
website:
www.calearth.org
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