Saturday, August 28, 2010, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm – J.J. Pickle Campus in North Austin

Are you preparing to build, buy or remodel your home and you want to know how to maximize energy and water efficiency,  comfort, and low maintenance? Four times a year Austin Energy Green Building offers its acclaimed one-day workshop for only $35! While August may seem like a long time away, these workshops typically sell out in advance, so register now for Green by Design.

The good folks at Barr Mansion are long-time supporters of Design~Build~Live, sustainable living and the local environmental community. Their beautiful Artisan Ballroom, venue for many Austin environmental events, was struck by lightening last month and burned down.

Please show your support and appreciation by attending an evening of celebration for the rebuilding of Barr Mansion, featuring artisan food and beverages from notable Austin restaurants and chefs. For details, or if you cannot attend but want to contribute, see the Bar(r)n Raising webpage.

Wednesday, July 21, 7:00 – 9:00 pm

Lance Armstrong Foundation, 2201 East 6^th Street, Austin, TX (Map)

While many of us have minimize or eliminated our lawn area in favor of less water- and energy-intensive native plants and/or edible landscapes, significant areas of lawn grass are likely to continue to be in demand. After all, most alternatives just can’t handle the foot traffic like lawn grass. But we can do many things to make lawns and lawn care more sustainable and in sync with today’s environmental and human health concerns. Modern sustainable lawns and lawn care consider an array of issues typically ignored in the conventional approach:

• Moderation – Using lawn grass only where necessary

• Biodiversity – Incorporating multiple species rather than a monoculture of one grass

• Plant and soil health – Minimizing ongoing resource inputs (water, fertilizer, herbicides)

• Toxicity – Avoiding chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides
  

• Air quality -Avoiding gasoline-powered maintenance equipment
  

• Noise pollution – Avoiding loud, annoying maintenance equipment
  

Our guest presenter, Gary White, will share with us sustainable and environmentally friendly ways his company, Austin Eco-Lawn, has chosen to deliver outstanding lawn care using practical solutions to manage your lawn the way you personally would choose to manage it. Learn how lawns can be cared in ecologically sensitive ways and with 100% human power.

Guest Presenter: Gary White, Austin Eco-Lawn

Refreshments by SesaTea, thanks to Texas Green Network!

This month’s presentation is being co-hosted by Texas Green Network (TGN), a community of Texas businesses, organizations and individuals committed to accelerating the adoption of sustainable best practices in the way we do business.  Design~Build~Live is a member of TGN, and we look forward to some great cross-pollination on the 21st.

This presentation is free and open to the public. No reservation required. For more information contact Scott through “Contact Us” or 512-689-1149.

Wednesday, June 16, 7:00 – 9:00 pm

Lance Armstrong Foundation, 2201 East 6^th Street, Austin, TX (Map)

Tired of the consumption-focused rat race? Learn how life based on non-material values, sustainability, friends, family and community can lead to a simpler, richer life.

Voluntary simplicity is a rich path towards leading ‘the good life.’  Philosophical underpinnings are paired with practical applications to decrease the complexity of modern living.  With the goal of a sustainable society, simplicity is key.

Join us for a presentation and discussion of ways in which you can simplify and enrich YOUR life.

Guest Presenter: Nick Moser, The New SHIRE Institute

Nick’s  formal education focused on the intersection of Philosophy and Clinical Psychology in regards to human perception of time.  He finished college and went on to become a Research Assistant at Harvard for Circadian Rhythm research.  His love of building and creating led him to a year of travel and learning natural building. Returning to Texas, he co-founded the New SHIRE Institute and now resides in Manor, Texas, on 100 acres that is the SHIRE Pilot Project and works to provide sustainable solutions to the public.

This presentation is free and open to the public. No reservation required. For more information contact Gayle through “Contact Us” or 512-478-9033.

Natural, Green, Life-Centered Design and Remodeling To Live For!

Featuring author, columnist and eco-architect extraordinaire, Carol Venolia

Three Events – June 17 and 19, 2010, in Austin, Texas

Are your home and landscape in need of some “greening” and improvements to make them more supportive of your health and happiness and more in sync with nature and natural cycles? You will not want to miss these special opportunities to benefit from Carol’s unique and amazing ability to perceive, integrate and communicate human/site/nature relationships into simple to advanced ideas that you can put into action.

Who Should Attend? Anyone who lives or works in a house, owns a house, is remodeling a house, is building or designing a house, selling a house, or wants a greener indoor environment (Homeowners, Architects and Designers, Green Builders and Remodelers, Renters, Realtors)

Thursday, June 17, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm, at Texas State Teachers Association, 12th & Lavaca

Natural Remodeling

Any home of any vintage can be made “greener” and more natural. This presentation, lushly illustrated with examples, will help everyone from homeowners to design and building professionals understand how to look to the gifts of Nature for better health, more efficient resource use, and a deeper connection with the living world. Book signing follows.

Admission – $30 in advance, $35 at the door, $15 for students, $50 for both presentations, $65 for this presentation + workshop, $85 for all 3 events.

Registration information below.

Saturday, June 19, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm, at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Southwest Parkway

Life-Centered Design

We human beings have spent millions of years co-evolving with natural cycles of daylight and night, sound and silence, color, aroma, texture, and rhythm. In our modern lives, we can choose to benefit from this rich biological heritage by making fully informed—and science-based—decisions that support our sanity, our health, and community. Learn how to create living spaces that tap into our human strengths and our human story. Book signing follows.

Admission – $30 in advance, $35 at the door, $15 for students, $50 for both presentations, $65 for this presentation + workshop, $85 for all 3 events.

Registration information below.

Saturday, June 19, 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm, South Austin Residence

Natural Remodeling Workshop

Green and natural remodeling principles can and should be applied to a real not-so-green houses and sites. Learn how to evaluate an existing house and site for its gifts and challenges in relation to sun, wind, water, landscape, and neighborhood; clarify a set of priorities and strategies; and allow life-supporting design responses to emerge from that process. Book signing follows.

Prerequisite – Attendance at Thursday’s “Natural Remodeling” presentation or familiarity with Carol’s book, Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House

Admission – $45, $65 for 1 presentation + this workshop, $85 for all 3 events. Advance registration required. Limited to 30 participants.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION- PLEASE READ!!!

DBL members will automatically receive a 10% discount on all events prior to checkout. (YOU MUST BE LOGGED IN TO YOUR ACCOUNT)

- If you already have a DBL account, log in, and select “Current Events” from the “What would you like to do?” pull down menu.
- If you don’t have a DBL account, you can create one (it’s free and without strings attached). Then log into your new account and proceed as above by selecting “Current Events”.

An acknowledgment will be emailed to you automatically upon registration.

>>TO REGISTER, CLICK HERE<<

Carol Venolia is an architect with a 40-year track record in ecological design and a passion for restoring the connections between humans and the rest of life. Her latest book, Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House (with Kelly Lerner), is a beautiful, practical guide to bringing existing homes into harmony with nature. She also pens the “Design for Life” column in Natural Home Magazine, is the author of the acclaimed book Healing Environments: Your Guide to Indoor Well-Being, and once published Building with Nature Newsletter.

All proceeds from these Austin events will support the educational efforts of Design~Build~Live. Thanks to our sponsors:

The USGBC Central Texas – Balcones Chapter presents the next in its lecture series featuring Helen Plume, climate change expert from New Zealand. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet Helen Plume at a reception after the lecture. A tour of the Austin Convention Center’s LEED retrofitting activities will be provided prior to the event.

For details and ticket prices, see the USGBC CT-B posting.

The Austin Environmental Directory is a sourcebook of environmental issues, products, services, and organizations.  First introduced in 1995, the 136-page 7th edition is available FREE,  in hardcopy and online .  This new edition contains articles on many important topics, including:• the future of transportation fuel;
• low-carbon and no-carbon homes and automobiles;
• zero (solid) waste and recycling;
• recent residential and commercial green building projects;
• Austin’s clean energy and climate protection programs;
• regional parks;
• grocery stores, restaurants, and farms that provide locally grown food;
• regional environmental groups;
• Austin’s water quality and water conservation programs.

Distributors are needed to help circulate all 40,000 copies.  If you are part of a business, agency, teaching institution, neighborhood group, condo association, or non-profit group that wants to hand copies out to the public, contact the editor, Paul Robbins, at  (512) 447-8712

A Design~Build~Live Monthly Presentation – Free and Open to the Public

Wednesday, May 19, 2010, 7:00 – 9:00 pm

Lance Armstrong Foundation, 2201 East 6^th Street, Austin, TX (Map)

We are pleased to have the opportunity to present a group of professional builders from the Instituto Tierra y Cal (Institute of Earth and Lime) in San Miguel de Allende, México. They will talk about the wonderful work they are doing in Mexico, Haiti and beyond, creating natural homes and community buildings in some very impoverish and devastated areas.

The good folks at Instituto Tierra y Cal(CYT) work extensively with compressed earth blocks (CEB), which are adobe-like blocks made by applying high pressure to slightly damp earth of various composition. The resulting blocks can immediately be placed into the wall, creating natural, durable, beautiful, high-mass bearing walls. CYT will also talk about the lovely earth and lime plasters they use to finish the CEB walls.

See the post below for the CEB and natural plaster workshop that CYT will be conducting in San Antonio starting May 20. This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity for those wishing to learn about some viable natural construction alternatives for both residential and commercial projects.

This presentation is free and open to the public. No reservation required. For more information contact Gayle through “Contact Us” or 512-478-9033.

A huge thanks to AECT for sponsoring this presentation!

www.AECTCEB.com

Saturday, May 22, 2010, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (rescheduled from March 27)

Instructors: Kirby Fry, Southern Exposure and Gayle Borst, Stewardship, Inc.

Location: North Central Austin, Texas

Fee: $75 ($67.50 for DBL Partners) – Register HERE; Limited spaces

Experience Level: Beginner to Intermediate

For those seeking a more sustainable solution for foundations, high-embodied energy concrete can be minimized or even eliminated through use of a rubble trench foundation. This low-impact technique, used extensively by Frank Lloyd Wright, uses rock (rubble) to support the building above.

During this hands-on workshop we will construct the foundation for a small cob cottage and will cover all the steps required to complete a rubble trench foundation, including:

• Importance of dealing with water flows around a foundation
• How to lay out and set the batter boards for the building
• Materials selection and sources
• Construction of the rubble trench
• Forming up the bond beam on top of the rubble trench

The project is the first step in the construction of a small cob cottage behind the Rosedale home of owners Mina Loomis and Robert Norris.

The instructor, Kirby Fry, has over 15 years of experience as a building contractor, including several natural building projects.  Kirby studied Natural Resource Conservation at Texas A & M University, served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Guatemala, and is a Permaculture designer, teacher and builder.

Assisting Kirby will be Austin architect and DBL Director, Gayle Borst, who constructed a rubble trench foundation for a studio behind her own home several years ago.

Fee for the workshop is $75 for non-members and $67.50 for DBL Partners. (If you are not already a Partner, join now and receive the discounted workshop price.) Included are a healthy vegetarian lunch and all necessary workshop materials and tools. Water, tea and snacks will also be provided. Enrollment is limited to twenty people. For questions contact Gayle at 512-478-9033.

Registration closes at 8:00 pm on Friday, May 21. Please call Gayle if registering on 5/21/10.

Registration required. To register, click HERE. If you don’t already have a DBL account, you will be asked to create an account. Once you have created an account and are logged in, select “Current Events” from the “What would you like to do?” pull down menu. An acknowledgment will be emailed to you automatically upon registration, along with the project address.

May 20 – 22, 2010 in San Antonio, Texas

Compressed Earth Blocks (CEB), which are similar to adobes, are one of the most versatile and expedient ways to build beautiful, natural, high-mass, earthen walls. And the perfect way to finish these walls is with rich plasters of earth and lime.

Coming to the San Antonio, Texas, area in May, is a three-day workshop opportunity to learn all about CEB construction as well as lime and earthen plasters. Professionals from  Instituto Tierra y Cal in San Miguel de Allende, México, and Advanced Earthen Construction Technologies earth block construction, will guide you through the process step by step.

For details, visit the calendar on  Tierra y Cal’s website.

May 8-15, 2010, Dripping Springs, TX

Join us for a week of natural building construction and education in the rolling hills of the Texas Hill Country. The workshop will cover cob construction from start to finish including: siting, design, budgeting, foundation, wall construction, windows/doors, swimming hole selection, roof, plasters, arches, niches and relief sculpture. Families welcome!

Instructors: Kindra Welch & John Curry, www.ClaySandStraw.com; Sara Schmidt, and guest instructors

Cost (includes camping and all meals):

•Early Bird registration (paid in full before 4/17): Adult tuition, $700; Second adult family member $450

•Regular registration (after 4/17): Adult tuition, $800; Second adult family member $500

•Kids 4 and under: Free; Kids 5-12: $150; Young Adults 13-18 with parent: $350

The workshop will begin at 1:00 pm on May 8 and conclude at 2:00 pm on May 15. For more information, please contact Kindra or John.

Registration required. TO REGISTER, click HERE. If you don’t already have a DBL account, you will be asked to create an account. Once you have created an account and are logged in, select “Current Events” from the “What would you like to do?” pull down menu. An acknowledgment will be emailed to you automatically upon registration.

October 01 – 10, 2010

Hempstead natural builder David Reed is now taking registration for this 10-day cob workshop with Christina Ott of Barefoot Builder.

During the workshop participants will learn the fundamentals of building with cob from foundation to finish.

For details, go to http://newjurabuilding.info/ and select the “Upcoming Events” tab. Or call David at 713-314-6145.