Online Natural Building Course

In this Online Natural Building Course you will gain a basic understanding of natural building as well as building with cob and other earthen materials.

registration opens June 6

Pre-Register Nowfor 15% off!

What is this course?

This Online Natural Building course will cover the basics of natural building, while also sharing the larger issues we face with our built environment, the changes that need to happen, and how to make those changes. Through a combination of pre-recorded lectures that you can watch at your own pace, as well as live sessions, you will be guided through the basics of analyzing site soil, mixing and building with cob, and building a small project.

Why this course?

Our lead instructor, Sasha Rabin, has over 20 years of experience teaching hands-on natural building courses. Although Natural Building is a very hands-on, tactile experience, we have created a curriculum that will allow you to be guided through the process of learning these techniques at your own pace, on your own site.

Our goal with this course is to broaden the access to natural building education and knowledge.

Why Quail Springs?

Quail Springs has been teaching in-person Natural Building Courses for over a decade, and has been on the leading edge of testing and research for cob building practices. We have the unique experience of learning from both living in the structures we have built, as well as working with engineers and researchers to further the legality and accessibility of these methods and materials.

Our teaching staff are farmers, activists, builders, and thinkers who not only teach, but also advocate at a regional level for policy change from agriculture and sustainable groundwater use, to building codes.

Meet The Instructors.

Sasha Rabin

Sasha Rabin fell in love with natural building in 2002, when she began her building career with an apprenticeship at the Cob Cottage Company. Since then she has taught extensively through organizations that she co-founded, Seven Generations Natural Builders and Vertical Clay, and through collaborations with The Yestermorrow Design Build School, The Canelo Project, Cal-Earth, The Solar Living Institute, and Quail Springs Permaculture. Teaching natural building has brought her as far as the Permaculture Research

John Orcutt

In 2013 John left his job as a coral farmer seeking a more fulfilling life helping people build shelter for themselves. He spent the next three years as a nomadic natural builder and student. After studying at the Earthship Academy in New Mexico and the Cal-Earth Institute in California, John joined a crew of superadobe (earthbag) builders from Cal-Earth and built in California, Arizona, and Nepal. In April 2016, John came to Quail Springs to learn cob building, joining Sasha Rabin and Paul Swenson’s Natural Building course.

Course Tuition

$400

Video Lectures:
- Our Built Environment
- Methods and Materials
- A Fire Safe Solution
- Codes and Housing Advocacy
Foundational How-to Videos:
- How to Mix Cob
- How to Make Adobes
- Basics of Earthen Plaster
Start to Finish Building Project Videos:
- How to Build a Small Earthbag Wall
- A Small Cooktop Rocket Stove
- A Cob Oven
Quail Springs House Tour Video
Text versions of each lesson
List of resources and book recommendations
Access to this content for 6 months
4 months of guidance and online support for your building project
8 group live sessions with Q&A

Pre-Register Nowfor 15% off!

Scholarships:

Scholarships and self-determined sliding scale cost options available on a case by case basis. BIPOC and historically underrepresented students will be prioritized. We will begin taking applications on August 8, 2022.

Frequently Asked Questions

New learning content will be released weekly in a series of pre-recorded videos. Some of these are lecture style, and some are hands-on. Through a series of video lectures, foundational how-to videos, and start to finish building project walk-through videos, you will learn how to identify the materials you will be working with, how to mix cob, how to begin your project of choice, and so much more.

The online video content is about 18 hours total (6.25 of class video, 12 hours of optional live sessions). There is also written content and reading material. The time spent on your hands-on project is ultimately up to you to decide how much time you want to spend. To complete one of the hands-on projects, we recommend setting aside ample additional time, but again that will be up to you to decide.

Yes, there will be a total of eight 1.5 hour live sessions via Zoom. Two held each month—August through November. In order to accommodate for varying schedules and time zones of our students, some live sessions will be held on Saturday mornings from 10-11:30 PST and some on Monday evenings from 5:00-6:30 PST. All Live Sessions will be recorded and available for you to watch at a later time in case you cannot attend one. Live session dates to be announced soon.

This course will use a few different platforms. Besides the main website where you will be following the curriculum, we will use Zoom for the live sessions, and Slack for online support with our instructors.

All students will be asked to join the course’s Slack workspace (what is this?) before the course starts — this is where students will get the chance to interact with one another and instructors, ask questions, and share resources and projects if you wish.

We will have clear tutorials in the course curriculum for how to use Slack. That said, we highly encourage you to get a head start and familiarize yourself with Slack and zoom, so we can all be ready to jump into this together. Here are a couple tutorials to start with:

Tutorial for Slack
Tutorial for zoom

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you need more help getting started with any of the platforms that we will be using in this course.