[Scpg] PR/May 28/SB Perm Network ECO-Film Night Honors Nader Khali

Fri May 15 14:01:19 PDT 2009

Press Release:
Contact: Margie Bushman
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
(805) 962-2571, margie at sbpermaculture.org
Emacs!

Emacs!

Santa  Barbara Permaculture Network
  ECO-Film Night
Honoring 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

         On 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, and Sidewalks 
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 at sbpermaculture.org,  www.sbpermaculture.org

-end-

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/dastonkalili

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
    an educational non-profit since 2000
(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie at sbpermaculture.org
www.sbpermaculture.org

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

First Annual Southern California Permaculture Convergence August 2008
http://socalifornia.permacultureconvergence.org
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