Become a skilled Natural Builder!
If you’ve been waiting for a workshop to truly learn the ins and outs of building a gorgeous home with mud and other natural materials, then this is it!
Geeli Mitti is back with a full build Natural Building workshop – from design to foundation to plasters and finishes – nothing is going to be left to imagination (well except the dreaming and creativity ofcourse). And this time, it is an ‘Adobe’ technique 2-storey cottage that we will be building together.
Natural Building includes a variety of building techniques that focus on creating sustainable buildings which minimize their negative ecological impact. Natural Buildings often rely on non-industrial, minimally processed, locally available, and renewable materials and can also utilize recycled or salvaged materials. Our focus for this workshop is going to be on ‘adobe’ – one of the oldest, most popular natural building techniques, worldover.
No prior experience or training of any sort is required. Suitable for all fitness levels and age.
24 days of immersion into natural building and life is waiting for you… in the hills of Nainital, within a bird sanctuary with gurgling streams and forests all around, and in the most beautiful month of the year when everything is green and the chill hasn’t set in yet.
And if you are an existing Geeli Mitti student who has done any of our workshops earlier, you can skip the first 4 days and join for 20 days. You will be offered reduced fees.
Whether you’re an aspiring builder, a natural building enthusiast or are just curious to know more about the possibilities of designing with mud, maybe you want to meet like-minded friends or get some Geeli Mitti dose of inspiration and fun… this is for you!
This is a very comprehensive and intense workshop designed for you to learn hands-on under the guidance of the seasoned Geeli Mitti team. There will be laborious hands-on building work daily along with supporting theory sessions and demos. You will emerge confident to actually get building and you WILL experience ‘transformation by mud’ 🙂
Here’s a list of the major learning heads:
–Learn about various popular natural building techniques around the world
–Understand different types of soil, soil testing and learn to build with your existing site soil
—Dry stone foundation: understand theory and practice hands-on
–How to make Adobe with 3 separate mixes – mud based, lime based, clay slip straw based for higher insulation
–How to design your house intuitively
–Different adobe moulds and sizes and their suitability according to the structure design
—Walls: Laying patterns and mortars
–Fixing doors and windows, other fixtures and furniture on the walls
—Wood work: Tie beams around the walls, rafters and purlins for the flat and pitched roofs, wood mezzanine flooring
–Build a pitched roof with clay tiles
—External Plaster: Lime plaster, preparation and application
—Internal Plaster: Clay plaster, preparation and application
—Bathroom Plaster: Tadelakt plastering, preparation and application
—Utilities and Services: installing Electricals, Plumbing, Septic system
—Flooring: Laying stone and wooden flooring
—Finishing: Natural paints, oils, sealants
Geeli Mitti is truly the only place in the country specifically designed to enable you to actually touch, see, walk-in and experience homes built with all the below techniques including a step by step detailed walkthrough on how each one was built, learnings, what can go wrong, what always goes right :-
— Earthbag construction
— Cob construction
— Bamboo construction
— Wattle and Daub construction
— Adobe construction
— Timber frame construction
— Stone construction
— Thatching
— Slate roof
— Living roof
— Reciprocal roof
— Stone flooring
— Earthen flooring
— Wooden flooring
— Plastering techniques
— Wood fired rocket stove oven
— Greywater and Blackwater systems
The evenings are for mountain walks, tea discussions, documentary and movie screenings, singing, stargazing…
Here’s a snippet from a past similar workshop, in the month of October!
Shared spaces (one of these will be allocated to you by the Geeli Mitti team):
- Large bamboo and mud loft aka Adda, with dorm style sleeping on 5 different levels.
- Cosy wooden attic aka Atariya, with dorm style sleeping and magnificent views.
- Spacious full height army tent with dorm style sleeping.
See video here :
Mattresses, Pillows, Sheets and Blankets will be issued so don’t need to bring any bedding linen.
If you have your own tent, we have space for pitching as well though we can tell you with experience that everyone enjoys the shared spaces and community living.
Flush common toilets with plumbing, Indian and Western style. Shower with hot water facility.
Charge: Rs.900/day/person for shared accommodation / self-pitch tent. All meals included.
Meals are vegetarian and local cuisine, mostly North Indian.
Private Cottages:
3 luxury mud cottages with private bathrooms, are available on a first booking basis.
Check out #GaadiGhar #TokriGhonsla #JodTodQila on Instagram.
Charge: Rs.5500-6500/day, for 2 people, with all meals included.
1 day prior evening arrival ie on 29th September’23 and 1 day later morning departure ie on 24th October’23, is optional and included complimentary.
Rs.35,000 for the 24 days intensive hands-on natural building workshop.
Rs.11,000 plus GST ie Rs.12,980 is payable immediately for registration by filling the form below. Balance Rs.24,000 is payable 1 month prior to arrival.
The above fees does not include the accommodation and food charges. Please refer to the ‘Accommodation’ section for choices and prices.
You will receive a confirmation email along with a welcome letter with dos and don’ts, post registration.
Registration will be non-refundable. If you cannot make it due to an exigency, you can however send someone in your place.
All funds, post direct costs, go to support our community initiatives. You can read about it here – https://geelimitti.in/community-initiatives/
We do not ask for donations and believe sustainability of any initiative also means financial sustainability.
Add this location to your Google maps and you’re good to go!
For more information on the modes of transport available to reach us, check out our Get In Touch page where we have a detailed guide.
We will also help with the coordination for car pooling and taxi bookings from Delhi. Participants flying in internationally and domestically are advised to fly in to Delhi itself.
ATTENDEE #1 DETAILS
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More Information:
Certificate of completion will be provided.
Please note that we have 3-4 super friendly dogs on site so incase you don't like dogs or are super scared, this might not be the right place.
We will also help with the logistics, coordination, car pooling and taxi bookings post registration. So do not worry about that. It is helpful though to book early, for planning.
Check out the Geeli Mitti COE (Centre Of Excellence) at:
Please read about the experience of other participants here
https://www.google.com/search?q=geeli+mitti+farms+reviews
Write to us at namaste@geelimitti.in to confirm your seat.
Calling/WhatsApp :
+91 9540937144. Please call only between 10am to 5pm.Due to the volume of calls and mails and it not being our favourite thing to do, responses can get missed. Please don't take it personally and just try and connect again. You will understand why it is so difficult once you are here!
"Changing the world, one magical home at a time". - Geeli Mitti.
