27 – 28 November 2020 ~ Online

BUILDING SKILLS and BUILDING SKILLS

Earth Building UK and Ireland’s 12th annual conference has the theme ‘Building Skills and Building Skills’.

This theme includes exploring actual skills involved in earth building, how we can build and develop our own skills as professionals and how we spread our skills and teach others, particularly in the ever-growing digital world.

We are blending Academic Talks, Vocational Talks and Skills Workshops, our usual approach to bring different voices, new perspectives and discussion to the world of earth building, research, training, engineering, business and architecture.

This year, the Clayfest is going ONLINE! This is the very opposite of where Clayfest usually comes from: normally it’s a chance to cultivate conversations about clay, develop skills with a trowel in hand, as well as the opportunities to physically network with a big group of likeminded people from near and far.

But don’t despair! Going online means we are really fortunate to be able to host speakers, who we couldn’t afford to bring, from places like Africa, America North and South, to add to those nearer home in Europe, Ireland and the UK. Of course YOU can join us too, whether you are in Wales, Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, Iceland or Zimbabwe! So, welcome. We hope this will bring you some knowledge and understanding of what is going on in heritage, new build, design, research, standards and training – a full range of skills in building and building skills. All of this helps us all to promote this hugely environmental building technique, which could be seen as critical, at this time of mass extinction awareness.

When you join this Clayfest you can stay ‘in the hall’ right through, or dip in and out and listen to the bits you think are most relevant to you.
Remember though, that the Clayfest spirit is also to bump into things you never expected, to learn about topics you thought irrelevant, which will suddenly take a shape and significance you never expected. Take a look at the speakers below and come and find out what is going on in this and other corners of the earth…

» Book now

Programme

• The Creation and Implementation of the First Cob Building Code in the USA
  John Fordice, Architect & Anthony Dente, PE
• Flood-resilient earthen construction technology and the Case-Study of Pakistan
  Scarlett Lee
• Earth Building in Arizona, New Mexico and Beyond
  Bill and Athena Steen
• Experience of lime stabilised earth and cob
  Tom Pollard
• Wobbly buildings and digital surveying
  Róisín Nic Cóil
• Did it work? Gauging the success of preservation methods at Çatalhöyük, Turkey
  Dr Ashley Lingle
• The Pitfalls of Energy Retrofit of Earthen Architecture
  Peter Cox FRSA
• The secret of the Nile. Microbiological nanotechnology clay code. Devolution of the porous pharaonic civilization.
  Alaa Emam
• How the roles of young women, dedicated training and climate-change adaptation support the earth building revival Nicaragua
  Helen Shears
• Using earth with waste materials
  Lizzie Wynn
• Building with Kersheef in Siwa Oasis
  Fiona Mckie
• Retrofit materials decision making – A case study of a 17th Century Cumbrian farmhouse
  Amy Hield
• Building trust, cooperation and change through JUMP!
  Becky Little and Rowland Keable
• Climate Change Housing: A new form of cob and tyre design: a call for
  volunteer designers
  Tim Baddeley
• COB BALE CONSTRUCTION – Earth slip pre-coated straw bale for efficient labour based construction, tailored to community building in South Africa.
  Andy Horn
• CobBauge
  Tom Morton
• Fighting the dark side: How can we maintain and increase the use of natural non-toxic plastic materials in buildings?
  Dr. Tom Woolley

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