House Alive International

We are often asked by people outside of the USA to come and help with natural building projects. In the past we have worked with NGO’s as well as private property owners. We have also sponsored projects that provided houses for families in need.

Why International?

International Natural Building projects are an exciting opportunity to share knowledge with and learn from people from other cultures and to apply natural building techniques to different environments and climates. It can also be an opportunity to help people who lack sufficient housing learn skills so they can affordably build their own homes. Equally important, it is an opportunity to promote tradtional, natural building techniques in places where “conventional” Western (and expensive) building practices are rapidly taking over. Many people in developing countries want concrete, American-style homes not because they are better or more comfortable, but because they are a sign of wealth and progress. We feel a responsibility to encourage people to question that way of thinking.

In this context, we feel that international projects work best if we are given the opportunity to help train local people in natural building skills and if the project benifits a person, family or community who needs a house.

Arrangements

Most commonly, you would hire us as consultants/teachers for a project and you would also recruit local students who are interested in learning natural building skills. Wether students pay, volunteer their time, or get paid to participate is up to you and usually depends on the local socio-economic circumstances.

Our fee for such an arrangement is $250 per day, plus travel, lodging and food expenses (we charge $100 per travel day for our time). In many cases, it is more cost effective to have one of us come out and work with you on your land, than for you and a partner to fly to Oregon to take a workshop from us.

Occasionally we can organize workshops as a “House Alive project”, where we will recruit participants (mostly from the USA), whose tuition then pays for the instructor´s costs and some of the preparations and materials. We mostly consider this option for projects that provide housing for people in need.

We are happy to talk with you about an international building project. Please e-mail This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it with your ideas and questions.