The School of Natural Building is thrilled to present our ever-popular seminar series about straw bale building and natural plasters, taught by the UK's leading straw bale expert, Barbara Jones. 

These courses are for anyone considering building with straw bales, building their own home or designing with bales. They are suitable for beginners or those more experienced with natural building or sustainable architecture.

We have four, complimentary seminars, each lasting one day. Each day runs from 10am till 4pm and are hosted at Tod College in Todmorden. See below for seminar topics, prices and details.

Preparing to Build with Bales - Wednesday 12th February

This popular workshop focuses on the project management of your building project, teaching the techniques you need to bring in your project on quality, on budget, on time. We’ll also be covering hot topics such as Green Mortgages and Community Land Trusts.

We will be covering the following essentials:

• How to find land, what legal approvals are needed for Planning and Building
• How to manage all stages of the build, the money and the resources.
• Introduction to one of our own straw bale build case studies
• How to obtain Green Mortgages & Insurance
• Tools & Equipment
• Further development of the straw bale case study
• Introduction to natural materials
• The increasing importance of Community Land Trusts and Co-housing

By the end of this jam packed session, you will have the basis of your own Straw Bale Build Manual, which will be invaluable when managing your project.

Design your Straw Bale Building - Thursday 13th February

The essential preparation for strawbale design whether you’re a self-builder, an architect, a designer or someone interested in natural building. This popular workshop will save you precious time & money when designing your strawbale building.

On this course you will:

• Be introduced to a brief history of Straw Bale Building
• Understand how to identify good building bales
• Learn how to design with the bale in mind
• Hear about strawbale panels for prefabricated and modular buildings
• Learn how to customise and ‘dress’ bales on site
• Understand where to locate posts for framework buildings

Straw Bale Technical Details - Wednesday 19th February

So you're ready to start your straw-bale building, but there are just some final, critical questions that remain unanswered? This ever popular one day workshop covers all the bits you haven’t understood or didn’t even know about! Once you book the course, there will be an opportunity to send your specific questions to Barbara, and she will answer them during the course of the day.

The course will cover:

• Natural foundations that can save you £££s
• Plinth walls and foundations – what’s the difference?
• Airtight doors & windows without expensive tapes
• Weather protection and the importance of drip edges
• How do I attach wall cupboards and sockets to straw walls?
• Compression for load-bearing & infill
• How do I build the roof first on my load-bearing building?
• Prefabrication developments

An Introduction to Natural Plasters - Thursday 20th October

Worried about the climate emergency and ecological breakdown? Want to play your part in decarbonising the housing stock by using natural materials, and improve your indoor air quality at the same time?

Then this course is for you. It will give you an understanding of topics such as:

• Realistic costs
• Healthy indoor air quality
• Humidity regulation -say goodbye to mould and condensation
• Historical precedents – plasters that last
• The natural cycle of lime
• How and why lime works better than cement
• Making clay plasters from earth

Pricing

Each 1-day seminar is priced at £100 with discounts available when you attend two consecutive days or all 4 seminars:

ABOUT BARBARA JONES:

Barbara is the founder of SNaB (@schoolofnaturalbuilding), and the UK’s pre-eminent straw-bale building authority. She has decades of experience with straw bale building, clay and lime plastering, building physics and leading work on building sites across the UK and Europe. Her book, 'Building with Straw Bales; A Practical Manual for Self-Builders and Architects' is considered the essential guide to building with straw, and Barbara brings a wealth of knowledge and practical experience to every course. She will ensure course participants have a wonderful learning experience.

ABOUT TOD COLLEGE:

Following a 5 year campaign, this former vocational college was transferred into community ownership from Calderdale Council in 2021. The centre functions as a community hub and learning centre, with a focus on sustainability. The building is fully accessible and boasts a variety of spaces for all sorts of uses. The college is a short walk from Todmorden station, which has regular direct trains to Manchester (25 mins) and Leeds (1 hour). There is car parking space at the college and locally. 

REPRESENTATION:

The School of Natural Building is a not-for-profit BenCom, set up to benefit communities, and doesn't receive external funding. However, we believe in driving representation within the construction and building industry, and price our courses as fairly as we can to ensure that they remain accessible. Our prices include tuition, all materials and refreshments (bring your own packed lunch). If you cannot afford the cost of the course, please get in contact to see how we can accommodate you.

TRANSPORTATION:

The School of Natural Building believes in the urgency of the climate challenge, and our work is fundamentally about supporting a low-carbon future where people live in ways which bring us closer to the earth, back into community with our ecosystem and back to ourselves. For this reason, we urge participants to travel to our course locations via public or shared transport where possible. We'll often connect course participants via email in advance of the course, to facilitate ride-sharing.

BOOKING:

There are limited places on this course, and booking is essential. Please use the button below to pay and secure your place. Please note that for insurance reasons, all participants must be 16 or over. We look forward to meeting you, but if you have any questions ahead of attending, please email schoolofnaturalbuilding@gmail.com.