[Scpg] SCPG ROADTRIP TO CALEARTH SAT NOV 3/2001| Dome, Sweet Dome - Inventor teaches world to build sturdy houses |

[Santa Barbara Permaculture Network]

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 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 and be back by 6 pm. 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."
     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. 

  







Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
224 E. Figueroa St, #C
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
805/962-2571
sbpcnet at silcom.com 

"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order to
grow." - Anonymous  
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