[Sdpg] Nader Khalili, internationally renowned architect, author, and educator, passed away at the age of 72 on Wednesday, March 5th.

Thu Mar 27 21:59:34 PDT 2008

....... 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.

<http://www.calearth.org/whatnew.htm>Other articles about his life and work.
<http://www.calearth.org/khalili.htm>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

<http://www.calearth.org/naderpic.htm>
[]

<http://www.calearth.org/naderpic.htm>

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.

[]

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 at aol.com
website: www.calearth.org
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