May 19th - 28th

Womens Natural Building and Carpentry Workshop 

@ SoLua Portugal 

👉Register Here👈

What is Natural Building?

Natural building is so much more than just building with natural materials; it is about reconnecting with our ancestral roots and our natural environment. It’s about building beautiful, durable, healthy and spiritually uplifting buildings as well as building relationships with people and the planet along the way. It’s about observing and respecting the world around us, consciously using local, renewable and sustainable materials to create buildings that work in harmony with our mind, body and soul, and the environment they inhabit.

Building a structure with natural materials is an empowering, humbling and inspiring experience, and building with only women creates a sacred, safe and supported sisterhood. We will connect with the earth, with ourselves, with each other and with these ancient building techniques which are silently ingrained in all of us. Together we will tap into this hidden knowledge and bring to life the skills and magic to create your own home.

What is The Womens Natural Building Collective?

The WNBC is a collective of experienced women builders living and working in Southern Portugal. We build unique natural structures that respond to their environment whilst also creating job opportunities and a training programme to empower women with the skills to build.  We share a passion for building but also a deep passion for our planet and in creating a more balanced and beautiful future. 

Why women only?

We have nothing against our fellow brothers, honestly; as a collective we often work with men and we also have mixed gender courses. What we have noticed over the years, however, is how differently women respond on a site when men are present, especially when power tools and machines are introduced. Seeing this we wanted to create a space for women to feel comfortable, safe and supported to experiment and try these often ‘male dominated’ activities. We also know from experience that when women come together, with intention, a shared vision and similar goals, something very magical and special happens.

Who is the workshop for?

This workshop is for women of any age and physical ability; no one is excluded from building with earth, we embrace our diversity and differences, our strengths and weaknesses; we can all play an important role in the building process no matter how big or small. This workshop is for your personal development, inner growth empowerment and is designed so that every individual  walks away feeling inspired and confident to continue to build with earth and with the ethics of ecological house design.

What will you learn?

During this workshop you will be connecting with the earth from day one; gaining experience, trusting your intuition and learning through doing. You will be guided by our experienced and passionate team of women builders with many years of experience and a wealth of knowledge and skills. We will be building a structure, that will be used as a healing space at SoLua, using a variety of different natural building method and techniques on the, through doing this you get to see, feel and understand the materials and the building process from start to finish. 

You will learn how to;

• Test clay sub-soils and use the results to create the perfect earth mix

• Learn about ecological house design and implementation

• Make adobe bricks 

• Learn about the stages of construction; foundations, walls, roof, floor

• Mix and work with cob in many different forms

• Mix and apply slip straw

• Work safely with power tools 

• Learn about reciprocal roof structures

• Learn about woodwork and carpentry

• Create an altar and beautiful artwork and sculptures with earth

• Mix and apply natural plasters

There will be some theory sessions too;

• Ecological House Design – how to design energy efficient homes in connection with your climate

• Natural Building Theory – How it all works and why

• Building techniques across the globe – what techniques are being used, where and why?

• Earth floors and reciprocal roofs

Alongside all of this we want to integrate and celebrate the feminine energy between us, to share, laugh, dance, cry (if we want to) and explore the different layers of ourselves. We will have additional (optional) morning and evening activities; yoga, women's circles, meditation, dance, singing to celebrate all that we are and all that we can be.

About SoLua

We will be staying at Solua (https://www.luna-solua.com/), a beautiful homestead surrounded by the rolling hills and wild nature of Alentejo, Portugal. 

Solua founders Tamir and Luna said;

We are a family of four, arrived in Portugal in July 2015 on a journey exploring our core belief system, consciously creating our daily reality in tune with our vision: to live a sustainable life of trust, in contact with ourselves and others.

SoLua was born in Alentejo, Southern Portugal, to cultivate a platform, a safe haven that facilitates and enables the experience of transformation and freedom, authenticity, and creativity.

SoLua Vision

For us, the experience of The Oneness of life is embodied in containing the paradox of life, both shadows and lights, the divine and the human, the masculine and feminine, the sun and the moon = SoLua.

We wish to create an ever-changing space for exploration, growth and connection, human to human, human to nature, and human to life itself. A place that allows us to grow, play, change, evolve, explore our core beliefs, studying ourselves and life itself together with a lot of fun.

We wish to give back to life, to support it via a sustainable approach to living, both physically and spiritually, and add our energy to the joined pool of energy of those who strive to make this world more harmonious, and the human species a kinder species.

We wish to share our journey with like-minded people who care about nurturing their inner passions, and experiencing life to its fullest.

Food

We will be eating fresh, local, vegetarian (always vegan options) meals 3 times a day which will be lovingly prepared by our talented chef and our support crew. If you have any allergies please let us know in advance so we can accommodate your needs, we ask for a small extra contribution for those with a gluten free diet due to extra expenses for ingrediences etc.

Accommodation

We will be making a cozy camp together during our workshop - Participants will need to bring their own tents and camping equipment or camper vans. All accommodation comes at no extra costs.

Cost: The fee for the workshop is €1,100 this includes all meals and refreshments, the course tuition and a course handout covering all the curriculum and more.

We ask participants to arrive before 13h00 on May 19th for a welcoming lunch, settling in and getting to know each other. SoLua is based in Alentejo and can be reached by bus to a close town called Cercal Do Alentejo, or a train station called Funcheira - from these destinations we can help you to organise a taxi to the farm.  SoLua, Pe

Deposit: We ask all registrants to make a deposit of €400 to secure their spot, and the remaining fees be paid on arrival. 

👉🏽REGISTER HERE👈🏽

Please Note:

In the unlikely event of us canceling the course, your deposit will be refunded in full; additionally, we will not be held responsible for any other financial losses accrued. 

Deposits are non-refundable if you choose to cancel. If cancellation is made 2 weeks prior to the course start date we ask for a contribution of 75% of the course fee to cover our losses. We will accept late bookings if there is space available.

Any questions please get in touch - womensnaturalbuilding@gmail.com