Equinox Sheltermaker Sept. 2011
| ECO-BUILDING ON A SHOESTRING: |
| SEMINAR |
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HOW TO DO IT +MORE
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| Where? 592 Muckleford-Yapeen Road, Yapeen, Castlemaine Directions |
| When? 11am – 1pm on Sunday October 16th 2011 |
| How Much? $25 |
| Limited Places - booking essential |
| Booking |
| Or, book and pay by Direct Deposit to:
Bendigo Bank |
| Or, by Money Order to: |
| Peter Cowman, 18 McKinnon Road, Dunolly, Vic 3472 |
| Can’t make the Seminar? |
| Then come to the Open House from 2pm – 4pm in the afternoon and experience first-hand an amazing eco-building handbuilt for $5000 |
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| By Donation |
| LIVING ARCHITECTURE IN NEW ZEALAND |
| TALK, CHALK & WALK THE WALK |
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| TALK 7-9pm Friday October 28th Christchurch ‘Architecture & The meaning of Life’ |
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| CHALK 11am-4pm Saturday October 29th |
| The co-creation of a mandala ‘The World As We Know It’ on a vacant Christchurch lot |
| In association with Gapfiller, Christchurch |
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| WALK THE WALK 1.30-5.30pm Sunday October 30th |
| A hands-on workshop exploring the dynamics of creating and living the architecture of our dreams. |
| New Brighton Community Gardens, in association with New Brighton Project |
| Further details of these Events are being finalised and will be published under LIVE Courses on this website over the coming weeks |
| ARCHITECTURE+PHILOSOPHY |
| A talk delivered by Peter Cowman as part of RMIT Architecture+Philosophy 2011 Programme Melbourne, Australia September 16th 2011 |
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| Change is the real challenge of Sustainability, particularly meaningful change in respect of how we live our lives. The role which architecture plays in this is significant. |
| In the false economy of endless growth buildings have become the repositories of status and wealth, serviced by overworked homeowners lured into debt by false promises, trapped in a cycle of endless consumption from which there can seem to be no escape. |
| Such situations arise because people have sold their time, the very source of their life energy. |
| To free oneself from such a burdensome life it is necessary to reclaim ownership of one’s time and consequently one’s space, to learn to balance the head and the heart, to find accord with natural cycles and rhythms, to learn the vocabulary of the invisible in order that we might communicate and give voice to what we feel inside. |
| Just as we have an invisible world inside us, buildings too have an invisible world inside them. It is the harmonisation of these two worlds which empowers us to live the fullness of our lives. |
| To read more … |
| DOWNLOAD COMPLETE ARTICLE .pdf
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| FINANCIAL MELTDOWN |
| In this first episode (of four) of Meltdown, we hear about four men who brought down the global economy: a billionaire mortgage-seller who fooled millions; a high-rolling banker with a fatal weakness; a ferocious Wall Street predator; and the power behind the throne.
The crash of September 2008 brought the largest bankruptcies in world history, pushing more than 30 million people into unemployment and bringing many countries to the edge of insolvency. Wall Street turned back the clock to 1929. But how did it all go so wrong? |
| An excellent documentary from Al Jazeera |
| HITTING THE BOTTLE HARD IN THE PHILIPPINES |
| Every now and again a simple idea comes along which brings a smile to all of our faces … |
| An environmental group in the Philippines has developed an innovative way to create larger and cheaper school classrooms for children while remaining environmentally friendly.
My Shelter Foundation has helped build rooms using recycled plastic and glass bottles in the northern Philippine province of Laguna in an effort to mitigate a growing climate change problem. |
| ANDY SMITH’S ECONOSPACE |
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| Andy is building this EconoSpace in his back garden using the EconoSpaceMaking DVD. |
| He has also been making good use of the EconoSpaceMaking Forum as he progressed. |
| Pretty tasty looking, huh? |
| He is now preparing to infill the frame with clay-straw. |
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| Touching the Spirit of Place |
| Friday November 18th, 6.30- 9pm |
| Port Macquarie NSW |
| An introduction to Environmental Dowsing with international geomancer and author of seven books, Alanna Moore.Includes a short session of introduction to the practical use of the pendulum, then a slideshow presentation taking you visually into the geomancer’s world. |
| Fee: $15 Bookings: see below |
| Divining Earth Spirit |
| 1-day Workshop |
| Saturday November 19th, 9am -4pm |
| Port Macquarie NSW |
| Introduction to energy dowsing for environmental energies and enhancement of homes and gardens.
Discover the energetic fabric of nature, the spiritual qualities of the landscape and how to enhance plant growth energetically, with the ancient art of dowsing. A hands on, practical training day. |
| Fee $125 |
| Attend both of the above events for $130 |
| Booking |
| Maggie Adkins
Phone 02 6559 4564 or, 0420 314 837 Or, email her at earthwomandreaming@bigpond.com |
| Earth Dowsing & Energy Gardening |
| With master dowser Alanna Moore |
| Saturday October 29th, 10am – 4pm |
| Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand |
| A day of practical dowsing to develop sensitivity to environmental energies and learn how to harness them for benefitting plant growth, animal wellbeing and harmony of place |
| Fee: $85 |
| Booking |
| David Baird Phone 03 453 1239 Or, email trees99@actrix.co.nz |
| Next Sheltermaker: November |
August Sheltermaker
| Architecture+Philosophy |
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| Friday, September 16 7:00pm in RMIT Building 8, Level 11, lecture theatre 68, to the right of the lifts 360 Swanston St, Melbourne, Australia FREE EVENT |
| Peter Cowman on ‘Living Architecture’ |
| In this stimulating presentation, architect Peter Cowman takes us on a mystery tour within the quasi-secret world of architecture.
From Newgrange to New Age, from tree house to temple, we are invited to explore architecture inside and out. Within this juxtaposition of time and space are to be discovered threads, emerging from the past and snaking forward to inform an invisible future. This insight leads us inwards to where dreams and expectations are forged. It is here, we come to realise, that the experience of architecture is conceived and a missing link between architecture+life awaits discovery. |
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| Architecture+Philosophy is an independently curated, flexible public program providing a unique opportunity for a space of exchange between the two disciplines In 2011, the series is supported by the School of Architecture and Design, RMIT University, and by Mediated City, DRI (Design Research Institute), RMIT University. |
| Peter Cowman is an architect, teacher, writer, eco-builder and director of the Living Architecture Centre |
| Newgrange & The New Science |
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| Under the title ‘Newgrange & The New Science’ author Kieran Comerford lures us inside that eponymous neolithic giant of the Boyne Valley, illuminating its darkness with intuition and skillful insight. |
| As probing as any solstitial light event, this timeless experience leads us from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from the present to the past – then back again. When we finally emerge from this incredible journey it is to discover that our consciousness has shifted allowing us to experience the world afresh. |
| No time is wasted or sacred cow spared. Male domination is dispatched so swiftly we hardly have time to catch a breath. Next, the world as we know it is deconstructed as we spiral off into space-time, cruising the invisible realms of emptiness and atoms, gravity and dark matter. From this high altitude we are invited not only to experience the world anew but to feel its vibrations deep within ourselves. |
| Before we know it the earth moves once more beneath our feet! Crustal displacement shifts the poles, changing our perspective and laying the foundations of modern civilisation and the science which dominates it. Vision quests, devas, orgone energy, elemental beings or magical ritual have no place in this world. We experience this absence as emptiness. To fill this void we must balance reason with intuition, opening the wellspring of knowing within our hearts. |
| Intention is the key to renewing ourselves and resonating with the Universe. It is by such means that we can order our world and orient ourselves meaningfully within it. |
| A paradigm shift of this nature is well within our grasp. Kieran Comerford clearly shows us the way. The epitome of the ‘modern man’ – learned, insightful, loving and considerate – he reaches out a hand which we should immediately grasp. Buy and read this book, change your life and the world will soon follow. |
| Real Estate Ransom |
| Real Estate 4 Ransom is a new documentary about global property speculation and its impact on the economy. Real Estate 4 Ransom considers changing motivations behind property investment and challenges the notion that the Global Financial Crisis was caused by bank lending.
Shot over 5 years, the film portrays many of the big picture issues world politics are grappling to deal with from an economics perspective. The 40 min documentary looks at whether genuine freedom has been delivered by the democratic system. The inefficiencies of the economic system are investigated and the impact this has on potential homeowners and small businesses. The documentary argues that with a simpler tax system, entrepreneurs have a better chance to succeed and the average Australian has a better chance of owning their own home. What role did real estate play in the crashing of the global economy? Co-Directors Karl Fitzgerald and Gavin Emmanuel have crafted a 40 minute documentary which features high profile economists, international guests, local homebuyers and renters, all who discuss their take on the state of Australia’s economy. Animations, music and a little humour are used to make economics interesting. |
| EconoSpace Open Days |
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| If you’ve wanted to experience an EconoSpace now is the time. |
| With EconoSpaces on view in northern and southern hemispheres, a defining line is being drawn symbolizing the potency of such small buildings. |
| The more that it is realised that unsustainable consumption is an inevitabile consequence of mortgage-financed home ownership, the more people will want to free themselves of such shackles. |
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| Learning how to build ecoloigically and pyschologically sound, low-cost shelter is a necessary precursor to such liberation. |
| Here is a simple building which can easily be made in the average backyard. |
| This is the ideal way to learn what are relatively simple skills. |
| The back garden is also the ideal place in which to learn them. |
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| You can even make your EconoSpace in such a way that it comes apart allowing it to be moved to another site some day. |
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| And best of all? |
| It’s a shed. |
| A very fine and beautiful passive solar eco dream shed, to be sure. |
| But a shed nonetheless as far as the planners are concerned, so there’s no need to get planning permission or a building permit. |
| The Open Days will allow you to not only experience one of these buildings but also to talk to the people who made them. |
| They might just let you in on the secret of how a small building such as the EconoSpace might change your life in the nicest possible way. |
| MORE INFO ON ECONOSPACEMAKING INCLUDING THE HOW-TO-DO-IT DVD |
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| GREEN-DOOR LEITRIM, IRELAND |
| 9 – 11th SEPTEMBER 2011 |
| Organised by Inspirational Homes Leitrim |
| Visit the original EconoSpace built by Gareth Phelan (above, right) and film director Johnny Gogan’s EconoSpace (above, centre). |
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| You can even buy a short film that includes Gareth telling his sheltermaking story. LIVING ARCHITECTURE DVD |
| You can also get a look at Gareth Phelan & Ciara Barrett’s home made up of 2 conjoined EconoSpaces! (below, pictured under construction) |
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| Inspirational Homes Leitrim’s Green-Door event will also provide access to a number of other buildings embodying Living Architecture principles. |
| Check their website for further details |
| SUSTAINABLE HOUSE TOURS |
| CASTLEMAINE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA |
| Saturday Oct 15th |
| Organised by Mount Alexander Sustainability Group |
| LIVING ARCHITECTURE CENTRE OPEN HOUSE |
| Sunday October 16th 11am – 4pm |
| Yapeen, Castlemaine, Vic, Australia |
| Organised by the Living Architecture Centre |
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| This is a chance to visit the EconoSpace I’m constantly charmed by. |
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| Made largely of recycled materials plus clay and straw and lovingly assembled by a dedicated band of students and volunteers, this little beauty is a mere 10sqm+. |
| Constructed on a budget of $5000 this building gives to lie to expensive eco-products. |
| Directions to the venue will be available on this website in advance of the event. |
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| Anima Mundi |
| Will you survive the transition of human industrial civilization happening now due to peak oil and climate change? Can you see the forest for the trees, the earth for the dream, the universe for the seed? Anima Mundi is an innovative documentary about the planetary animal called Gaia and the human animal we deny, we deny at our own peril, yet a peril that is perfect in design.
FEATURING |
| Revolutionary Energy Machine |
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The Lutec 1000 has been granted patents in at least 60 countries around the world, including the US, China and India.
Engineers John Christie and Lou Brits, who have endured intense criticism after they first unveiled their invention in 2001, are now preparing to construct a prototype of their revolutionary power device they hope to market within the next two years.
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| The Town That Disney Built |
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| Thousands longing for the wholesome safety of 1950s America have bought into a tightly regulated Florida town constructed by the Disney Corporation. But recent deaths and foreclosures have shown the dark side of their southern idyll. |
| Bird House Boom |
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| SUKADANA, Indonesia — Along the spine-jarring road that runs through this city on the South China Sea, in between the sparse, waterlogged shacks of corrugated aluminum and wood, colorful buildings have begun to sprout. |
| They tower over their low-slung surroundings with dollhouse facades, colored in baby blues, sunshine yellows and ruby reds.
Sukadana, a small coastal city in western Borneo, is in the midst of a building boom. But the new houses are not for people … |
| NEXT SHELTERMAKER – EQUINOX |