Nov2011 Sheltermaker
| Living Architecture in Christchurch, NZ |
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| Your eyes do not deceive you. This building is indeed leaning! One of many in the centre of Christchurch that await demolition.
The entire city centre has been devastated by earthquakes turning it into a no-go area … |
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| Despite the trauma and destruction the people of Christchurch are ready for the task of rebuilding. A ‘container mall’ has now been built, forming a new city centre. |
| Sight of the widespread devastation raises an interesting question … ‘why are modern buildings so hard to deconstruct?’ |
| Watching the deconstruction process reveals much about the thought form which shaped these monuments in the first place! Clearly no thought was ever given to the possibility that they might need to be removed at some point in the future. |
| What was so evident as one engaged with this challenging environment was the strength and resilience of people. It is indeed the human spirit which brings places alive – and keeps them alive. |
| Lots of fun was had during the 3Events in Christchurch … more on these in the next Sheltermaker |
| MARYBOROUGH MUD HOUSE RESTORATION |
| SATURDAY 12th & SUNDAY 13th NOVEMBER |
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| DIRECTIONS |
| Built by students 30 years ago to a design-type from Niger in Africa, this structure was constructed without the use of timber formwork or scaffolding. |
| Featuring both a dome and a barrel vault, this charming building was constructed at no material cost! |
| The Restoration will be led by James Henderson of Henderson Clayworks. James is Australia’s leading expert in all aspects of clay construction. |
| Bring… work clothes – shovels – wheelbarrows – buckets – mattocks/picks – a sense of humour |
| Permaculture Living |
| Saturday November 26th |
| 2 – 5.30pm |
| Eco-Building on A Shoestring |
| With Peter Cowman |
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| HOW TO DO IT WHERE TO START THE INSIDE+THE OUTSIDE EMOTIONAL, TERRITORIAL+ GENDER STUFF HEART+SOUL ISSUES COSTS MATERIALS CONSTRUCTION PLANNING+MORE |
| Plus, Afternoon Tea & |
| Farm Tour of Dryland Temperate Permaculture Gardens |
| Permaculture design strategies for dryland temperate gardening in the Goldfields |
| With Permaculture Pioneer Alanna Moore |
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| Limited to 12 participants
$45 |
| BOOKING |
| To secure your place it is advised to pay the booking fee of $20 NOW with balance payable on the day … |
| You can also pay the booking fee by bank deposit or Money Order
For details contact the Living Architecture Centre |
| SPIRIT OF PLACE |
| A stimulating weekend programme of talks, films & workshops |
| FRIDAY-SUNDAY
DECEMBER 2nd-4th 2011 |
| Magpie House
48 main Street Upwey melway 75a8 (opposite station) Melbourne |
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| Friday Dec. 2nd 7.30pm ‘Sense of Place’ |
| Talk presented by Alanna & Peter $10 |
| We can discover the subtle qualities of landscapes and buildings by developing a sense of place and learning ways to explore the intangible realms, the spirit of place. Not solely the province of feng shui masters, the art of divining environmental energies is a part of our palette of sensory perceptions, and anyone can participate. |
| Saturday Dec. 3rd. 2-5pm |
| ‘Architecture & The Meaning of Life’ |
| Exploring the connections between people, places, their lives and their homes. Bring along plans or photos of your house on the day! $40/Couples$60/Concession$35 |
| Saturday Dec. 3th 7.30pm |
| FILM NIGHT with Peter & Alanna |
| Screening of documentary about & Living Architecture: ‘Building On The Edge’ Plus, ‘A Thirst for Ireland’, Alanna’s film on Geomancy in Ireland $10 |
| Sunday Dec. 4th 10am-1pm |
| ‘Divining Earth Spirit’ |
| Workshop with Alanna |
| Experience Earth Spirit. Learn how to engage deeply with Nature.
Divine the subtle dimensions of life & place |
| The Earth is alive! and we can connect to her lifeforce and nature’s invisible realms with simple techniques developed from the ancient art of dowsing. Also known as divining, the exploration of environmental energies covers a wide spectrum these days, looking at aspects ranging from nature spirits to technological radiation stresses, as much as the ‘ley lines’ (Earth currents) that effect health and wellbeing. Learn simple, easy techniques of pendulum dowsing. Discover the problem of geopathic stress and how to do remedial Earth acupuncture, and much more! |
| Sunday Dec. 4th 2-5pm |
| Eco-Building On A Shoestring |
| Seminar with Peter $40/Couples$60/Concession$35 |
| The Why, The How & The What If? Plus … Emotional, Terrirorial+ Gender Stuff; Heart+Soul Issues; Costs, Materials, Construction+ Planning+More! |
| Sunday Dec. 4th 2-5pm |
| Field Trip with Alanna (for advanced students)to local places of interest $30/Couples$50 |
| Discover and connect with the local spirits of place! First, we’ll decide on interesting places to visit (by car pooling) in the vicinity, then discover by dowsing any significant features at them, as well as practice Earth healing techniques, where needed. |
| Booking/Enquiries HERE or 03 9005 5833 |
| MELTDOWN |
| In the final episode of Meltdown, we hear about the sheikh who says the crash never happened; a Wall Street king charged with fraud; a congresswoman who wants to jail the bankers; and the world leaders who want a re-think of capitalism. |
| The financial crash of September 2008 brought the largest bankruptcies in world history, pushing over 30 million people into unemployment and bringing many countries to the brink of insolvency. |
| Listen to some interesting stuff about Values and to the former Prime Minister who says ‘if the Chinese or Indian economies falter, the present financial mess will seem like a picnic’ |
| ORIGINAL LIVING ARCHITECTURE |
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Grass-cutting ants build gigantic nests – underground cities where up to seven million insects live and tend a fungal garden that feeds their young. Scientists have now discovered how the ants build nests that stay at the right temperature for this precious fungus to grow. The ants build porous turrets, specifically to ventilate the nests … READ MORE |
Fatherhood Leads to Drop in Testosterone |
| A new study suggests that men’s bodies evolved hormonal systems that helped them commit to their families. |
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| ME & MY GIRL … STILL THE BEST OF FRIENDS |
| Testosterone, that most male of hormones, takes a dive after a man becomes a parent. And the more he gets involved in caring for his children — changing diapers, jiggling the boy or girl on his knee, reading “The Cat In The Hat” for the umpteenth time — the lower his testosterone drops. |
| It’s all true! |
| My own experience of parenting is such that I feel that men should be fighting for the right to be hands-on parents! |
| Why? |
| Because its so much fun, not to talk of stimulating, fulfilling and life-focussed. |
| And, of course, it’s not at all macho. |
| Because so many men cannot handle their hormones they have excluded themselves – and other men – from the the parenting scene. |
| Wake up guys! |
| READ MORE ABOUT THE STUDY |
| The Coast of Utopia |
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| By MAXINE SWANN The new antidote to civilization is a squatters’ community in Uruguay where modern conveniences are few, but good vibes abound. |
| Cabo Polonio, a remote beach village in southeastern Uruguay, sits on a green peninsula between the Atlantic and a desert landscape of shifting sand dunes. Strewn across the grassy promontory are a single lighthouse and a few hundred whimsical dwellings. Rasta-colored flags serve as wind vanes, tinted glass bottles are embedded in walls, and exteriors are painted with pictures of suns, cow spots, rainbows and a Klimt-like rendering of a woman. One stands out as particularly fanciful. It’s more sculpture than cabin, constructed from panes of glass, wood, plastic, bamboo blinds and green plexiglass, with tall, lush plants growing out of the floor. |
| Read more: T Magazine: The Coast of Utopia |
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| Next Sheltermaker – December |
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 |
