CASBA's West Coast Natural Building Conference will take place at the beautiful rammed earth Shady Creek Event Center in Nevada County this year, on March 31st - April 2nd.  We hope to see you there!

Join instructors Kita Glass and Miles Taylor for a seven day Bale Cob Workshop in Watsonville, CA from September 3-10, 2022. Get hands-on experience making a small structure including foundation, mud and straw walls, plaster, and more! The $700 workshop fee includes on-site camping (bring your own tent and bedding) and three delicious vegetarian meals each day. Scholarships are available and kids under 12 can join for free. For more information contact Miles at miles@muddbums.com.

More information and online registration: Workparty: Intro to Light Straw Clay 

Skilled plasterers needed this Saturday April 30th 9am-4pm (will probably finish earlier!)  

633 Hegenberger Road, Oakland CA

Come help Bob Theis apply an acoustic plaster mix (perlite, vermiculite and clay) that will get a surface texturing to the small interior ceiling (less than 200 sq feet of surface) of the feral straw bale art gallery in the Youth Spirit Artwork's Tiny House Empowerment Village. Lunch is provided! Plenty of parking! No registration required. Contact Bob Theis for more info. +1 (510) 235-0616  bob@bobtheis.net Or Allison Arnold 301-357-0582 allisonannearnold@gmail.com

Weather-Resistant Exterior Plasters with Clay and Lime workshop in Phoenix, AZ

This 3-day course replaces a previously arranged straw bale building workshop scheduled for this same time that has been moved to a future date in November. 

Taught by Athena and Bill Steen, this workshop will focus on stabilizing clay plasters for use as an exterior finish. We will explore a variety of ingredients that can be added or applied to help clay resist water. Lime plaster will also be covered to a lesser extent. The course will cover theory and mixes with plenty of hands-on opportunities for all participants. 

Existing exterior strawbale walls plastered with a clay base-coat will be finish plastered during the course. Different methods and techniques will be used on various walls around the two existing buildings.

This workshop will be held Friday March 4- Sunday, March 6, 2022. The cost for the plaster workshop is $375 which includes meals, materials, and instruction by the amazing Steens.

To register, contact Susan Ontiveros at 602 561-9621 or email her: susanontiveros424@gmail.com

CASBA's West Coast Natural Building Conference returns to Westerbeke Ranch in Sonoma, April 22-24, 2022. Please mark your calendars and make plans to join us. We have high hopes that it will be safe to gather in person next Spring! 

CASBA is happy to announce that we've arranged another round of free downloads of Appendix S - Strawbale Construction AND we've added Appendix R - Light Straw-Clay Construction!  Visit the download page

These free downloads are made possible by arrangement with the International Code Council (ICC) and payment of a licensing fee. Please take only what you need, and if you like what we're doing, feel free to support this effort with a donation!

  "Straw Bale Construction Manual" from Germany was just published in Europe and will be available in the US in 4-5 weeks. (in English)

30 exemplary international projects illustrate the wide spectrum of design possibilities with straw. (some CASBA members contributed)

• Documents the many and various uses of straw as a building material
• Practical, step by step presentation with structural details

Here's a sneak peek!

Read it at OneZero!  People Are Future-Proofing Their Homes With… Straw 

 We are regretfully postponing our conference due to the Covid-19 virus. We are in the process of rescheduling, so check our website for an update soon! In the meantime, registration is temporarily disabled. However, you can join the wait list to let us know that you'd like to register when it re-opens!