1st Call for Masters and participants
1st European Natural Building Colloquium
15-22 of August ’04
Sun and Earth: Heat, Insulation and Mass
You are invited to participate in seven days of hands-on workshops, presentations and discussions exploring the renaissance of traditional natural building techniques and modern innovations.
There’s been a significant increase in natural
building all across Europe for the past 8-10 years. However we are some
who feel that many of the professionals in the field could benefit from
meeting for a few days and exchange our knowledge while doing real hands-on
projects. In other words; it’s time we import the American concept of
a ‘Natural Building Colloquium’:
A gathering of Builders, Designers, Architects, Owner-Builders, Educators
and anyone with a concern for our earth and the desire to create a sustainable
environment while building. Read more at: http://www.networkearth.org/naturalbuilding/colloquium.html
 Part of the site at Máriahalom |
Simultaneously with the new trends in the West there are strong forces working on maintaining the national natural techniques that appears throughout the East. Quite often this leads to excellent projects, which the West could benefit from learning about. Máriahalom in Hungary (30 km from Budapest) is one such place. It constitutes 50 hectares and currently has 5 very interesting building projects in progress. The founder, Géza Lakatos has offered to house the Curriculum and
will seek to facilitate a place for whichever technique you may want to demonstrate or learn. Further information about Máriahalom will be available soon on their new website
Topics: We are currently finalizing the program and we would appreciate suggestions for lectures and workshops that follow our main theme:
Sun & Earth: Heat, Insulation and Mass.
We currently plan to include the following
topics:
How to design and build a Low emission Finnish mass ovens w. water heater/
Rocket stove/News in Straw-bale construction / Cob building and sculpting
/ Natural plasters / Healthy home Materials / Organic architecture /Hemp
construction/ Solar design / Natural wastewater systems /Permaculture
in construction process/ Photovoltaic systems ...and much more.
The program will include lectures and allow plenty of chance for gaining practical experience through workshops and socializing. Máriahalom has a sufficient amount of tools including a band sawmill, a front loader, several mud/straw-mixers etc. [Even a combine harvester!].
Masters: To be announced!
So far we know that we’ll have Heikki Hyytiainen, the father of modern
Finnish mass-ovens, and possibly Ianto Evans of the Oregon Cob Cottage
Company.
The intention for this 1st call is to encourage you to submit suggestions
for Masters.
Where: Hungary, 30 km N/W of Budapest (travel instructions will be submitted upon registration).
Price:
Pre-registration: 375 ‘Eco’ (before May 31st) includes complete program
and meals. After June 1st: 450 eco. 250 Eco for Presenters. The price
per day is 85 eco.
Included in price is: Access to the whole event, 3 organic meals a day, basic camping facilities (bring tent/contact us for accommodation), a CD-rom with all presentations and photos/video of the event + contact catalogue.
To keep costs down, Participants and Presenters are asked to help clean up after 2 meals during the 7-day event.
The cost is low to encourage early registration.
Participation is limited to 120 people; register early.
Note about the ‘Eco’ currency:
The Eco exchange rate is an accounting system designed to even out the
difference of the national financial burden due to the large difference
in East-West economy. For more information see the current attached
exchange rates at: www.eyfa.org/ecorates. To finance the event it’s
necessary that we achieve a certain balance between East and West participants
and we reserve the rights to accept participants in order to have ‘Westerners’
representing min.1/2 of the total amount of participants.
Who: This event is intended for professionals within the area of natural building. We expect you to have experience within the field and have a keen interest in meeting your international colleagues, exchange experiences and network. We expect that some of you want to facilitate some of the workshops and demonstrate your techniques.
The intentions for this 1st call are also
to gauge the level of interest:
Let us know if you would consider coming!
Simply mail organizer@permalot.org and write ‘Yes + [your name and nationality] in the subject title. We’ll then ensure you’ll get further information about the colloquium
We hope to see you in Máriahalom!
Géza Lakatos and Max Vittrup Jensen
Host and Organizer
Note to Masters from Overseas: To ease the environmental and financial burden of your journey, we’ll be happy to assist you by promoting your skills to other organizations and events in Europe through our extensive networks
PS: Aid to non-latin speakers!
col·lo·qui·um n. pl. col·lo·qui·ums
or col·lo·qui·a
An informal meeting for the exchange of views.
An academic seminar on a broad field of study, usually led by a different
lecturer at each meeting.
[Latin, conversation, from colloqu , to talk together : com-, com- +
loqu, to speak; see tolk- in Indo-European Roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Last but not least:
We’re considering arranging a simultaneus event for partners and kids,
allowing for the fact that natural building should join the family,
not tear it apart. The partner option could include workshops in soap
making, pottey, weaving etc (possibly a sight-seeing trip in Budapest)
and join the evening program mentioned above. Máriahalom is situated
at the edge of a cozy village, surrounded by fields and forest; plenty
too see and enjoy. We estimate the price will be 3 of the curriculum
price for the partner, 1 for kids over 10.
Note: This event will only be arranged in case of popular demand! Let us know!