SCPG ROADTRIP TO CALEARTH SAT NOV 4/2000| Dome, Sweet Dome - Inventor teaches world to build sturdy houses |

[Elly]

Hi Wes,
Put me on the list for the trip to see the earth
houses.  Thanks!

Elly White
(Ojai)

--- Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson
<lakinroe at silcom.com> wrote:
> hi Everyone
>          this is to wet your appetite for annual
> trip by the South Coast 
> Permaculture Guild to Hesperia Ca to see the Earth
> domes and Houses of 
> Architect Nader Khalili.
>          Saturday Nov. 4 Roadtrip to visit visionary
> Architect Nader 
> Khalili at
> Calearth in Hesperia Ca. this is an all day annual
> trip to visit the 
> demonstration
> site, the Nature Center and new housing in Hesperia
> all using earth 
> architecture to
> build them. 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 .
> for more info call Wes Roe
> 964-1555 or email lakinroe at silcom.com, potluck lunch
> Check his Website for pictures of the Earth
> buildings and more info and 
> article below
> www.Calearth.org
> 
> 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."
> 
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