Natural Building

We offer an ongoing building workshop to any of our interested visitors. Building at the Bosque Village will give you life-long friendships, skills, and memories. You will build with people from around the world who share the interest of sustainable living and natural building.

We are in the process of constructing small huts out of natural materials. The huts will provide a warm, cozy, secure sleeping space for visitors. So far we have constructed buildings out of adobe, cob, stone, and cobwood. We will construct a strawbale building in the spring.

In addition to daily practice, our workshop includes:

• movies, books, discussions and lectures about natural building and permaculture
• an opportunity to experience life "off the grid", as the Bosque Village gets all water from rain catchment and power from solar panels.
• advise for self-guided field trips to local artisan towns, or the option to schedule a tour with a Lake Pátzcuaro tour guide
• a variety of activities to ensure your experience is both enriching and fun!

For the Students

We can provide interested and dedicated students with enough knowledge to participate in natural building, and potentially start their own project back home. If you are interested in learning with us please indicate this on your visitor application form. Be sure to bring along sturdy work shoes and clothes that are comfortable and can get dirty.

For Builders, Architects, and students of sustainable building design

Experienced builders who will be staying at the Bosque for some time can propose their own building project. Interested architects or builders may wish to submit a design proposal for a building including sketches, floor plans, materials needed, and estimated cost, including labor-hours. Building proposals may include rain catchment systems and landscape ideas. We are interested in exploring a variety of natural building techniques, and are available for email or phone conversations from interested and knowledgeable people. Contact us to begin a dialogue.

Materials and Methods used for Natural Building

Cob

Cob is a building material consisting of clay-heavy earth, water, sawdust, and pine straw. There are many recipes for mixing cob depending on where you are located and what is available to you. We use earth and pine straw from the Bosque, water from the rain, and sawdust from a local wood mill. The cob is mixed and then formed into walls, with spaces left for windows and doors. It is enjoyable to work with cob, mixing it with your feet and sculpting the walls.

Adobe

Adobe bricks are made out of the same materials as cob: clay-heavy earth, water, sawdust and pine straw. The mixture uses less water and is formed into a wooden mold. The adobe bricks dry out in the sun and then are stacked together to make walls.

Cobwood

Wood rounds are stacked together with cob and sawdust in between. The wood and sawdust provide extra insulation, making it an ideal construction method for our sauna.

Straw bale

Straw bales are stacked together to make up the walls of huts. Straw bales provide excellent insulation. The walls are covered with a mud plaster mix.

Earth Roof

Also called living roofs or green roofs, earth roofs provide excellent insulation and are aesthetically beautiful, especially in the green forest environment. We put an earth roof on our sauna, and will plant it next June.

Earthen Floor

Earthen floors are compacted dirt, normally covered with linseed oil to make them easy to clean. Our earthen floor has not been covered yet - we are experimenting with how we can make dirt floors comfortable.

Thatched Roof

The Mexican grass that grows in the Bosque is perfect for thatched roofs. We plan to experiment with thatched roofs in the near future.