On Monday, December 8th 2014, the first Movement of Life Cyprus Natural-Building event, was organized with great success with honorary guest speaker, the distinguished architect and master-builder on earth architecture, Iliona Outram Khalili. The event was a collaboration between the Cyprus Volunteer Team, Movement of Life Cyprus along with the Architecture Department of the University of Nicosia. The talk was hosted in the contemporary facilities of the Architectural Research Center at the University of Nicosia and it attracted an abundance of people from a range of backgrounds: eco-group representatives, simple civilians with environmental worries and without particular knowledge on the field, specialist on the matters of building and architecture as well as Architecture students both in undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Iliona, presented with an exceptional clarity and simplicity the fascinating knowledge of “Natural Building with the Sandbag Technique”, a method which has been established by her architectural partner and late husband - distinguished architect and humanitarian - Nader Khalili. The Khalilis, along with their students and trained master-builders world-wide, have worked hard these past 20 years so as this knowledge gets into the hands of simple civilians, and in collaboration with governments all across the world that have been impacted by war situations, they have been offering solutions and relief to hundreds of refugees through the construction of emergency eco-villages.
The research and practical workshops organized by Cal-Earth foundation, created by Nader and Iliona Khalili two decades ago in California as well as New Earth-UK foundation in the United Kingdom, which faithfully carries on with the eco-work today, have managed to offer solutions world-wide which range from isolated earth homes resistant to environmental disasters, to Earth-Dome complexes and beautiful eco-communities that function today as independent reservations.
The interest of the attendees to listen to an introduction on this “new” Natural Building technique, which actually draws inspiration from the traditions of ceramic and building art three thousand years ago, was obvious and it is already clear that the majority of people are ready for the next step: A practical application of this knowledge for the design and creation of such eco-structures in Cyprus.
Stay tuned therefore as the educational hands-on Workshop on Earth Dome Homes with the Sandbag Technique, is coming soon!
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