Love for Life

House Alive!
Cob, natural building, natural design & appropriate technology
House Alive!

Helping you discover the beauty, simplicity, ease & affordability of natural building

About House Alive

House Alive! started as an organization in 2001. Its primary activity is to teach workshops in Natural building, natural design and appropriate technology. We also offer consulting services (See contact page), do presentations and seminars and work to promote natural building as a real alternative to conventional construction methods.

Our concerns go beyond just buildings, which we hope to reflect in our approach, our presentation on the web and our workshops. We care about community, people’s health, our environment social justice and a peaceful world.

Most of our work has taken place in the western United States. However, we have also done projects in Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Spain and on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. In 2006 we started House Alive International in order to better answer the many requests for our services we get from countries outside of the united states.

Besides preparing and teaching workshops, lots of our time is taken answering people’s questions, writing articles, doing research and organizing/participating in community events.

Although there are many people that are part of the “House Alive Family”, its main instructors are Coenraad Rogmans and James Thomson. Although both instructors have taught extensively in and outside the USA in the past, James has developed a specialty in international workshops, while Coenraad will continue to do workshops within the USA. We also collaborate on larger projects and apprenticeships.

We are always looking for people who want to contribute, volunteer, learn, teach, join and have a good time with us!

About our homestead

In 2001 we bought 20 acres of land, about a 30 minute drive west of Ashland and Medford, in Southern Oregon. That summer we set up a yurt with an earthen floor and some cob internal walls and lived there with the help of some solar panels and a bucket toilet.

After a year, in the Spring of 2002, we started building a small, code approved strawbale, cob and stud frame hybrid house, a story-and-a-half high with a total footprint of about 650 square feet. It has an earthen floor, internal cob walls, a bucket toilet and is completely off the grid. Most of the interior is earthen plaster.

We proceeded the following year to sell the yurt and build a beautiful cob cottage, completely in the spirit of the “emerging Oregon cob” style, with a curved ridge beam, a pole framed ceiling, a cool box in the wall and a living roof. It has been continually occupied since it was built and has out-performed our expectations.

We now also have a smaller version of the above cottage, merely functioning as a (guest) sleeping space, as well as, a natural building hybrid cabin, a load bearing straw bale cabin and a load-bearing strawbale sauna. We also have several cob garden walls with gorgeous mosaics and a cob green house.

We are concerned about the use of energy in the context of our care for the earth and the limited availability of fossil fuels. Our water is pumped from a well with a solar panel and all our electricity comes from solar panels as well. We only have wood heat and use very little of it, due to the efficiency of our buildings. We use several different kinds of composting toilets and have solar hot water.

As part of our continued effort to come up with better ways to live, we are looking forward to new and exciting ways to improve our houses and energy flows. The 2007 workshops will be part of creating buildings that hopefully will approximate 0-energy homes: No heating or cooling would be necessary year round! We also have plans for a natural swimming pool and are looking into ways to reduce our dependency on propane (for cooking and hot water in the winter) to a minimum.

Last, but not least, we are in the early stages of the development of a permaculture garden, which includes fruit trees, chickens and green houses. We hope to soon be able to harvest all of our fruits, greens/vegetables and eggs from our land.

We live on our land with our two kids, Julian and Rosie (10 and 7 years old). Our load bearing strawbale cabin functions at the moment as a part-time homeschooling center for our children as well as some of the children living nearby. We love our house and cannot imagine ever choosing a place that was not as simple, healthy and beautiful as our place.

We invite people to come and visit us, look around and enjoy seeing the unfolding of our rural sustainable experiment. Please give us a call for directions. (541) 899-3751.

About Coenraad Rogmans

I love teaching natural building. My experience is that everyone can do it, the materials and techniques are very forgiving and people produce beautiful structures almost without exception. This makes the whole experience very uplifting and hopeful. Natural building is not just about building. It is also about health, community, empowerment, creativity and fun.

I am a native of the Netherlands, where I “grew up” and went to college. I graduated as a teacher in Health Education. We were taught not so much what was healthy and what was not, but more how we could help students make decisions in the context of their health that were well balanced choices. Avoiding disease or living a long time, although interesting desires, were not at the center of the discussion. We rather emphasize freedom, choice, happiness, consciousness and connections to the community.

After college, I left my homeland to work at a children’s camp in Southern California, where I directed the summer camp program as well as the year round outdoor education program. In Shakespearian fashion, I met my later-to-be wife and mother of my children, Courtney, while working at the camp (I was the guitar player around the campfire as well!).

In the summer of 1990 she and I went to visit Guatemala for a period of two months. We wanted to learn Spanish and explore the country. We ended up taking a course in organic farming and appropriate technology. We learned about solar ovens, photovoltaic, planting corn and rural communities. Since that time, providing uplifting alternatives to industrial consumerism has been a full time occupation for us.

At that time we were able to use our knowledge of alternative technologies as conference center directors, focusing on integrating solar technologies into the facilities that we were responsible for. In 1997 we stumbled into the Cob Cottage Company and in collaboration with them organized a Natural Building Colloquium at the conference center we were running in Southern Oregon. It was that same year that I took a one-week cob workshop.

Since that time I have helped organize and host four more national Natural building colloquia, taught a great variety of courses and workshops in cob and natural building, including work with children, and consulted with many clients on natural home design. I taught design at the apprenticeship program of the American School of Natural Building in Coquille, Oregon.

As a natural builder, I am excited about the gains we have made in the world, and how many people are interested in looking at houses and community in a different way. In order to help more people make their dreams come true I want to continue teaching high quality workshops as well as writing more, doing more research in the field of natural building, training more teachers and creating a local natural builders organization.

We work together with co-teachers, others in the natural building community and neighbors and friends. Together we create workshops that are fun and satisfying and often life changing. In 2004 James Thomson joined the House Alive team and has continued to work with us ever since.

No matter how much I love to teach natural building, I feel even more complete if I get to sing songs from the sixties and seventies around the campfire with a group of people. I try to sneak that in as much as I can during the workshops!

You can reach Coenraad at Coen...@housealive.org
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About James Thomson

It would be easy enough to say that I’m a “Builder” or a “teacher” or more accurately a “teacher of building.” But Natural Building is about so much more than construction techniques; it is a movement, a philosophy, and a lifestyle. It is about making fundamental changes in not only what we build houses out of, but how we feel about housing. It is about going against what the culture tells you you should build and figuring out what you really want to build. It is about living more simply and more fully. I feel lucky to have found the movement and to be a part of it, and for the opportunity to introduce others to the skills and philosophy of Natural Building.

I grew up in a conventional brick townhouse in Boston, MA. I graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio with a degree in Biology and a minor in Environmental Studies. Both fields of study instilled in me a love of and concern for the natural world. Upon graduation I worked in the environmental education field, teaching groups of children and adults about science, natural history and ecology. Though I enjoyed this work, I ultimately became frustrated that it didn’t lead to any tangible result or product. After a while I started to wonder what I was actually doing. Giving people a positive experience in the out-of-doors is a noble goal, but for a practical, hands-on person like myself, it ultimately left me feeling unsatisfied.

Somewhere along the line somebody told me about cob and Natural Building. It sounded interesting, and I bought a book: Dan Chiras’ “The Natural House.” I was instantly captivated, and vowed to learn more. I decided to take a cob workshop in Baja, Mexico. At the workshop I met Coenraad, who was looking for someone to help him out for the following summer. We reached an agreement and I moved out to Oregon three months later. I’ve been covered in mud ever since!

Over the past few years I have been involved in the planning and teaching of more than 30 Natural Building workshops in the US and Central America. I love teaching workshops because they give people the tools and the inspiration to start making changes in their lives, to start living in the way they have always imagined possible but never knew how to achieve. Almost without exception, people leave Natural Building workshops full of ideas and enthusiasm for their future.

I am particularly interested in international projects, especially those in Central and South America. As the wealthiest country in the world, I believe we have a responsibility to not only help those who are not as well off, but also to encourage them not to make the same mistakes we have made. In many parts of the world, traditional (and natural) building practices are giving way to concrete blocks and stud-frame walls. It is my hope that we can re-energize the use of more traditional building techniques around the world.

The Natural Building movement is a rapidly growing and evolving one. Nearly every day I learn of an interesting new technique or project. It is heartening to see such interest in something that I believe really can change the world for the better, and I hope to be able to continue to help the movement expand and improve.

You can reach james at jam...@housealive.org
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Links

The following links are all connected to organizations that teach workshops on Natural Building. I have a personal friendship with most of these people and have known them to be quality, caring educators. Clicking on these links will open their websites in a separate window.

Ancient Earth School of Natural Building: http://www.naturalbuildingschool.org
These people have done some beautiful cob and natural building work and are wonderful teachers.

Cob Cottage Company: http://www.cobcottage.com
Cottage Grove, Coquille, OR. Greatly contributed to the revival of cob in the USA and worldwide. They offer a great variety of workshops and apprenticeships on cob and natural building.

Cob Works: http://www.cobworkshops.org
Located on Mayne Island, BC, Canada. These talented builders have dotted this beautiful island with gorgeous natural buildings. Besides natural building, they also do workshops on carpentry.

Cobworkshops.org: http://www.cobworkshops.org
This site provides a directory of cob and related workshops in North America.

Emerald Earth: http://www.emeraldearth.org
An intentional community in Mendocino County, CA with beautiful permaculture gardens. Among other things, they teach several workshops a year on Natural building.

Groundworks: http://www.cpros.com/~sequoia
Located in Murphy, OR. Becky Bee has been teaching in the USA and abroad for many years. She focuses in particular on women and building.

Kleiwerks: http://www.kleiwerks.com
This organization has been involved with many international projects as well as workshops in the south-east of the USA.

Seven Generations Natural Builders: http://www.sgnb.com
These are several students from The Cob Cottage apprenticeship program, teaching workshops throughout the country.

Cob Together: http://www.cobtogether.com
Teaching cob and natural building workshops in Southern Oregon, mostly in the summer months.

Barefoot Builder: http://www.barefootbuilder.com
Providing the much needed workshops in the South Eastern United States. Their cob structures have done fine in hurricanes!

The Last Straw: http://www.thelaststraw.org
Calendar of events for natural building with many great links and resources.

Earthed World: http://www.earthedworld.co.uk/index.php
Cob building in the UK.

Cob Projects: http://www.cobprojects.info
Cob information and resources.

Natural Building Network: http://www.naturalbuildingnetwork.org
The Natural Building Network serves to connect natural builders and information.

Builders Without Borders: http://builderswithoutborders.org
A worldwide network of natural builders

Here are some other related organizations and businesses that have linked to our site.

Green Home Building: http://www.greenhomebuilding.com

EcoBusiness Links Environmental Directory: http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com

White Oak Farm & Education Center: http://www.whiteoakfarmcsa.org

House Alive!: http://www.housealive.org