Natural Building with Clay

Learn how to harvest, design and build with clay to understand and experience the shift from conventional building materials to bio-based materials.

Over the course of two days, we will explore the local landscape surrounding BMC to forage for natural building materials like clay, sand and fibre. Architect and Permaculture Designer, Ed, will guide us through a tactile, playful experience of getting to know these materials and their cultural context before we begin a practical co-build project. Together we will learn about the key building junctions and details like foundations, openings, walls and roofs, and understand the differences in performance between conventional and natural materials.

This is a two day course with the option of participating in just one day if you wish. Tickets are available for either Saturday or Sunday, or the full weekend.

What will you learn?

Day 1, on Saturday we will learn:

• How to source natural materials

• How to make cob and clay plaster

• The historical and cultural context of clay as a building material across the UK and globally

Day 2, on Sunday we will learn:

• How to design and build a basic building structure with natural materials

• The differences in design, building performance and physics of ‘modern’ buildings (cement/ steel/ plastic) to ‘natural’ ones (clay, lime, stone, fibres, timber).

Who is this for?

• Anyone interested in playing with natural building materials

• Those looking to build your own structure with natural materials

• Adults – 16 years old and above (under 18s to be accompanied by an adult)

Course Instructor

Ed Dale-Harris (he/him) is an ARB Architect, Permaculture Designer and founded Socially Active Workshop Architecture (SAWA) in 2014 while supporting a reconciliation project in Rwanda. Ed values nature based design and learning systems, critically important indigenous and nature based wisdom in the complexity of modern day living systems given the climate change challenges we face. 

Ed has developed a broad range of skills as an: architect, self builder, project manager, workshop leader, gardener, natural builder working with communities across Africa, Asia and Europe. Now specializing in ecological retrofits, extensions, new homes, workshops, round houses, tiny homes, compost loos, community gardens and natural buildings from his homestead in mid Wales. With a playful love of the four elements (Earth, Fire, Wind and Water) and care for cycling and exchange of water and minerals through our living system.

Key Information

Date - Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th June 2025, 9.30am - 4.30pm

Location - Troed yr Harn, Talgarth. 

Arriving - We operate a car-free campus and we will meet at Talgarth Car Park at 9:30am to walk up to the campus together.

The walk from the carpark to the campus is a 35 min walk, over farmland and through woods, with a fairly steep incline at the end. For this course, the walk will form part of the workshop and we will learn how to find building materials along the way.

We will walk down at 4pm, so expect to be back at the carpark around 4.30pm.

If you do not feel comfortable with this walk, please contact magda@blackmountainscollege.uk and we will arrange for you to drive to the campus.

What to bring:

• Water bottle and packed lunch (BMC will provide hot drinks)
• Weather-appropriate clothing suitable for outdoor, messy work
• Sturdy shoes

Optional

• Notebook and pen
• Gloves 
• Small towel (if you opt to go barefoot in the clay and need to clean up after!)
  

How much does it cost?

This is a two day course with the option of participating in just one day if you wish. Tickets are available for either Saturday or Sunday, or the full weekend.

We aim for our short courses to be as accessible as possible by removing finance as a barrier to learn. We also have to ensure that we can cover material and teaching costs. To do so, we operate a Pay What You Can model. We ask you to select one of 5 ticket options based on your individual financial circumstances:

Weekend reduced rate ticket - £150

Weekend true cost ticket - £200

One day Saturday or Sunday only - £85

One day Saturday or Sunday reduced rate - £50

Philanthropist - Gifting a donation to the college to support future courses & bursaries: £300

Free - Fully-funded

If you would like to be considered for a free place, then please send an email to magda@blackmountainscollege.uk. You will be contacted by a member of our team 2 weeks prior to the course starting. Please note that once tickets are sold out, we can no longer accept bursary applications.

Please note that spaces on all our courses are limited. We operate on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Please view details on our pricing structure here for suggestions of what rate to pay.

Refund Policy

We will refund a 50% of your ticket until 4 weeks prior to the course start. After that tickets are non-refundable. Depending on the uptake of the course we hold the right to cancel it, in which case you will be refunded. In cases of extreme weather or other unforeseen circumstances that force us to cancel the course, you will also be refunded.

Accessibility

This course is rated as 3 (less accessible) on our scale of accessibility. Read more about our accessibility policy here.

Please see our booking terms & conditions upon checkout for more information.

We will be doing some practical work around the farm buildings moving over rough ground, with steep slopes so this is less suitable for those with mobility requirements. We will endeavor to make adjustments where possible, please get in touch with magda@blackmountainscollege.uk if you have access requirements.