Greenbuilding Workshops

Continuing progress on future Bioshelter, we will be adding walls to the section of the timber frame we raised last fall. This section will house the electronics and batteries for a wind generator also erected last fall. We will also be working on mudding our strawbale seed/herb drying building. We'll continue with these and other projects throughout the spring and summer. We'll see you there!

Buildings in the works

The Eco Learning Center is a 40 acre parcel, 50% woods, 15% dunes and reforesting hills, 25% farmable land. This is sacred ground. Any project created here must integrate with the ecosystem and be proportionately scaled to the ecological footprint. The goal is to demonstrate man's ability to live within the biological system maintaining human dignity and a reverence for the natural. Design will focus on using renewable resources and available building materials or recycled building products.

• A bioshelter. Winter growing has great potential to extend the growing season and increase production in Michigan. The main challenge that needs to be overcome is one of finding a way to warm soil temperatures.

  A bioshelter is a greenhouse that is modeled after the natural environment, that takes into account the body of heat of chickens housed within the building, the heat produced by composting and heat retension from sunlight in thermal mass, as well as the importance of gas exchange and growing medium. The skeleton of this structure will be timber-frame.

• The Food and Friends building: a food building/demonstration center in which CSA members can gather, where food can be prepared for pickup, classes in natural cooking can be offered and educational resources will be located for studies in sustainable design. This building will also provide housing for future volunteers and interns. Design-wise, it will be a combination of earthship and strawbale construction with a timber-frame. Our goal is to create community and an enhanced network of communication in the design process and implementation of the designs. The design process was begun in the 2005 Green Building Design Charrette where experts in sustainable building design facilitated a four day intensive planning session at the Eco-Learning Center.

• A caretaker's cabin.

POSTERS FROM PAST WORKSHOPS

See the poster for last year's greenbuilding design charrette.
Dan Chiras, author of The New Ecological Home and Rusty Smith, Assistant Professor of Architecture at Auburn University began the planning and design process. Design professionals and community members interested in green building attended this four day planning session.

See the poster for last year's Women's Frame Drumming Class
Facilitated by DeDe Alderman: 231-276-BEAT or rhythmicadv@hotmail.com.